Kurse all SeeDs
by cosmic
Summary: A lethal return. Tragedy. Murder. Romance. Rinoa is treacherously trapped by Ultimecia - and what is the vicious love that binds Seifer and Quistis? *EPILOGUE ADDED: Please read to find out the truth about "The End".....*
1. Griever: The Haunting

**Disclaimer** These characters don't belong to me, yada yada yada! If you find this fic weird, don't worry, all will be revealed...just go with the flow.  
  
  
*Sis?*  
  
The tiny boy lifted a chubby, rain-drenched hand to push the soaked bangs of hair away from his minutely wrinkled forehead. He gazed upwards with hope and longing, but all he could see was the translucent sheet of rain pouring down incessantly from the leaden, overcast sky. Tinges of cloudy purple appeared at the edges of the sinister, shadowy clouds, almost as if they were mocking him.  
  
*Am I...all alone?*  
  
The blue-green eyes blazed with a grief and pain he had never experienced before. What was this?   
  
*I can't - I can't*  
  
Tiny sparks of energy flew from his jaded eyes, combatting the rising wall of grief within him, fighting against the stinging liquid that was threatening to spill from his eyes. The diminutive figure stumbled foward blindly. The rain was menacing now, dropping cliffs and mountains upon him. The tears flowed freely as he ran, the wind whipping them back, drawing his cheeks tightly behind him until he thought they would tear. The rain mingled with the tears and blinded him, both in silent conspiracy -   
  
*SIS! SIS! COME BACK!*  
  
Why couldn't he see where he was going? He tried to open his eyes but spiralling waves of red confronted them, searing into his burning pupils. She didn't love him. Nobody did. Why should he love them -   
  
*She's gone - all alone, all alone again*  
  
"No! I'm not alone!"  
  
The voice ripped into the little boy's head with a piercing cold wind that shuddered his whole body. Yet, it was soothing, in a way? Where was this voice coming from?  
  
"I have - I have -"  
  
The voice was growing fainter, disappearing behind the waves of merciless, torrential rain. It didn't belong. It wasn't real.  
  
"I HAVE RINOA!"  
  
The voice found a gateway and forced itself through the child's mouth.  
  
*Rinoa?*  
  
The boy's eyes grew wide and - more mature somehow, their blue-green entirety suddenly more knowledgeable, older. Rinoa - he wasn't alone?  
  
Her face danced before him, tantalizingly close yet agonizingly far away -   
  
*Rinoa! I - *  
  
"Rinoa! Don't go! I - "  
  
The two voices blended together in a disharmonious chord. The child reached out his arms towards the face, knowing that this was important, somehow, in some way, he knew her, he was her, their souls were -   
  
The face shimmered behind a diaphanous veil of rain droplets and grew fainter. Somehow he knew that if she disappeared now, he would never see her again.  
  
"RINOA!"  
  
*RINOA!*  
  
The face convulsed and grew terrified as it was sucked further away, the beautiful mouth opened in a soundless scream. She was screaming something - but the rain, the terrible rain -   
  
...squall...save me...  
  
There had to be something he could do, something he could say! The two voices were one, the souls were the same soul, both thinking the same thing, over and over  
  
*"Rinoa! I love you!"*  
  
For one instant, the face looked fleetingly back at Squall, with hope reflected in the limpid brown eyes -   
  
Too late!  
  
The words, horrible, horrific words exploded in his brain, at the same instant that the face shattered. Refractions of all the colours he had ever seen mized in every possible way, blended int a dazzling palette, showered before him. She was gone - his angel -   
  
*"NO! ANGEL! NO!"*  
  
***  
  
Squall woke up with the words on his lips. His heart was pounding painfully against his ribs, his throat dry and parched, his pulse palpitating erratically. A dream. That was all.  
  
He reached up with a shaking hand to touch his milky white face. He could feel the tears on his cheeks, and he brushed them away. His angel. His angel -   
  
Almost for reassurance, he glanced towards the pillow next to him, where her radiant countenance would lie every morning, the shining black hair strewn across the pillow, sunshine emanating from her closed eyes. Love filled his heart, soothing away the terror that had overcome him during the night. He looked down at her.  
  
What he saw almost stopped his heart. His Rinoa was gone, vanished. Maybe even -   
  
The sheets were crumpled, the pillow dented and lying on the floor, revealing a long rip in the bedsheets. And ion the midst of it all, the chaos and disarray, a small object was lying on the mattress.  
  
It was a silver ring, shining and glinting in the morning sun. His ring, which he had given to Rinoa and which she always wore around her delicate neck on a chain. He could just make out the inscription, "Griever", on the inside of it. And that wasn't the worst. Underneath the unsullied purity of the silver ring on the white mattress, there was a single droplet of scarlet blood.  
  
Should I continue? I'll be depending on the reviews to decide whether to continue or not! So review! And be kind...  
  
  



	2. Mind Contact: I'll be waiting

Liberali Fatali  
  
**Disclaimer** I don't own any of these characters. Seriously, I wish I did, but I don't!  
  
Squall slowly reached out a quivering hand to grasp the cool silver band that lay on the mattress beside him. Blindly, he turned it over and over, tracing the engraving of the statuesque lion on the front. How empty it was. How hollow he had been, to attach any sort of sentiment to a series of lines etched on a ring, when they held no feeling. He slipped the ring onto the chain around his own neck. What really mattered to him -   
  
So suddenly, almost too suddenly, the realisation hit him. Rinoa was gone. He didn't know where she was. He might never see her again -   
  
"ANGEL!"  
  
The words exploded from his mouth as soon as the thought crossed his mind. He WOULD see her again. He WOULD hear her voice, so mellifluous it reminded him of Siren's song. He would. He had to.   
  
In a whirlwind, Squall threw on his clothes and burst out of the dormitory, to find the person who would help him. As his shoes slipped over the polished marble of Balamb's halls, the fountains lining his path melded together in a rushing waterfall of noise and colour -   
  
There she was, still asleep, her tousled head peaceful on her pillow. She would help him - she would have an idea -   
  
He knelt down by the side of her bed and shook her gently. She sighed softly and turned over in bed. He shook her a little harder and her eyes fluttered open to reveal her sleepy, dilated, sapphire irises. She sat up in bed and pushed her tangled gold hair off her shoulders, evidently surprised to see him.  
  
"Quistis", Squall said in a low, urgent voice, "Rinoa's gone. She's gone - "  
  
His voice shook slightly, and he paused for a second to regain his bearings.Then he started to speak again, quickly, to avoid having to relive the awful moment.  
  
"I had a dream I was back at the orphanage, looking for Sis. Then - I realised I wasn't alone. I had Rinoa. Ad she was there, Quistis, but she was scared and alone. I tried to save her - I tried! But she disappeared, behind the swirling mist, rain and fog. And when I woke up...she really was gone, leaving behind only my ring and - "  
  
"And?"  
  
"And a drop of her blood. I don't know what to do, Quisty. Please help me. Please."  
  
Quistis looked at Squall and felt a wall of pity for him rise up within her. The cold, introverted Squall begging her for help? He loved Rinoa. Once, she would have felt jealousy and regret, but now all she felt was compassion for how he had changed. And worry for Rinoa. But - there was hope -   
  
She looked into Squall's blue-green eyes and knew that he was thinking the same thing.  
  
Ellone.  
  
***  
  
Blackness enveloped Squall as he lay back on his dorm bed. Dancing patterns flickered in the darkness. Ellone. He had to call for her in his thoughts. She could find Rinoa - send him to her -   
  
*Ellone? Ellone? Can you hear me?*  
  
He felt a slight, strange prickling sensation at the nape of his neck.  
  
*Ellone...help me...I need you...*  
  
He had never felt this before during contact with Ellone. It was like a - a wall blocking his thoughts from hers. And even worse, it felt as if Ellone was making the wall. Strange forces, like invisible fingers, were pushing his thoughts back forcibly. Pain shot through his temples in a radiating ball of heat.  
  
*Ellone! Listen to me!*  
  
*ELLONE! SIS!*  
  
The wall crumbled, but only partially. The force was still there, the feeling that something was artificial, something wasn't right -   
  
**Please leave, Squall. You do not belong here**  
  
It was Ellone's voice, but Ellone's thoughts? She would never say something like that. Yet she was thinking it, sending it to him. What did she mean?  
  
*What do you mean?*  
  
**I told you to leave! Your presence is unwelcome here.**  
  
*Ellone? What are you saying? I need to help Rinoa!*  
  
**You kannot help Rinoa. Do not interfere**  
  
Was this Ellone? Yes, it was her voice - he had thought that before. But the accent - had he heard it before?  
  
*Ellone? Is that you?*  
  
**In a way.**  
  
*Ellone! I love her!*  
  
**She kannot love you**  
  
*WHAT?! That's impossible! What do you mean, she cannot?*  
  
This wasn't Ellone - he was sure of it. But whoever it was knew where Rinoa was, and why she had gone.  
  
*She does not know you. She is completely at my mercy*  
  
Kurses? Kannot? It couldn't be - they had defeated her -   
  
*KURSES! LEAVE! The extermination will be karried out! No SeeD kan stop me!*  
  
Before Squall was hurled into the writhing chasm of unconsciousness waiting to claim him, he preserved one thought -   
  
*Ultimecia?*  
  
  
  
So? Did it suck more than the first part? Should I continue??  
  
Please review!!  
  
  
  
  



	3. Enchained: Waltz for the Moon

Waltz for the Moon  
  
**Disclaimer; I don't own the final fantasy characters, squaresoft do (i think).**  
  
Author's note: Please review, for the love of God! It only takes five seconds (approximately!) and it would make me a very happy bunny. Thank you. Now read the story!  
  
********  
  
*Squall?*  
  
Her limbs felt heavy, yet they were numb, almost as if they didn't exist. Perhaps they didn't. Perhaps she didn't exist any more.   
  
Clouds of mist obscured her thoughts, veiling her brain. Only a few words managed to penetrate that mist. The others were gone, lost forever. Why couldn't she think properly? She would have frowned in frustration, only the muscles in her face seemed to have given up completely. She could feel her hair, uncomfortably warm against her neck and shoulders, gently brushing the shoulders of her azure-blue dress. She could not see, but what could she feel?  
  
Cold steel around her delicate wrists, tightly clamped into place. She shuddered involuntarily, and felt vibrations running down her spine. At least they were something tangible, something she knew was there.   
  
*Squall?*  
  
The name struggled up through the thick fog in her mind and bubbled up to the surface. What would he be thinking? If he thought she didn't love him - if he thought that was why she had left -   
  
She choked back a sob and forced herself to arrange her thoughts. Why had she left?  
  
She hadn't left. She had been taken.  
  
It had been the middle of the night, her arms had been around Squall. Her head had been resting on his firm chest, finding just the right place. The moonlight had been playing on his beautiful, soft brown hair, playing the waltz she knew so well from the night they had first met. And then -   
  
The waltz had changed abruptly to a tune so fast, so erratic, yet so eerie that she could not keep track of it. Her mind had been seized, before her body - a strong, ghostly hand reaching out to snatch her, to tear her away -   
  
Another ghostly hand, ripping away her necklace -   
  
Her ring.   
  
She didn't know how she had not noticed it before. Its familiar, cool presence on her bare neck was absent, leaving only a burning hollow of grief in its place. At least, with her ring, she would have felt whole. Now she felt thoroughly alone, empty, and -   
  
Full of love for Squall. Her knight.  
  
She could hear footsteps approaching, the vibrations being sent along the cold stone floor to where she lay. She shrank back automatically.  
  
The silhouette whipped away the compression helmet that was clamped over Rinoa's face. Light, albeit dingy and dark,but light all the same, flooded Rinoa's eyes. She shook her head and flexed her fingers, finally looking up to meet the hollow eyes of a shadowy silhouette. She tried to move, to scramble away, but her hands were still crushed together in the cold steel chains, her legs cuffed to the cold floor. She could see the rest of the room now; a dingy, dungeon-like place with a strange light emanating from each of its four corners. A strange, cold-looking throne was inset into the soaring, high wall at the back of the room. The sight nagged something at the back of her memory. It was altered, but she was almost positive it was -   
  
"Rinoa"  
  
The voice wasn't coming from the silhouette, it was coming from behind her. Rinoa tried to twist round to see who was speaking, but the chains held her firmly in place. The silhouette before her started to speak, in a harsh, grating, faintly Russian accent.  
  
"Kurse that Squall. That insufferable SeeD. Trying to make mind kontakt with the possessed."  
  
Mind contact? Ellone?  
  
Possessed?  
  
"I hope that you have disabled his ability to make mind kontact..."  
  
The other voice, slow and swaying, with an unpleasant lag between words, spoke up.  
  
"Yesss, Sssorceress..."  
  
"What will be done next? We have obtained the girl. She has the powers needed to make the kaste of eternity. We need the boy too. Must we take him by force? He will need to die anyway."  
  
Die? Squall? No!  
  
But she was helpless. She felt so useless. She could not do anything. She was sitting here listening to them talk of killing Squall, and she couldn't lift a finger to help him. What a failure she was. Tears rolled down her cheeks.  
  
*I love you, Squall...*  
  
The slow, swaying voice sounded again...it was a surprisingly young voice, almost -  
  
"Theee riiingg. I have curssssed the ring. If he weaaarsss the riing some haaarm wiill befaall hiim at the perfecct time. Theen he will beee weeakk enough for us too overcome him..."  
  
*Don't wear the ring Squall, don't touch the ring, please, for me Squall...*  
  
She tried to communicate to his mind, but she couldn't. She remembered what the silhouette had said...his mind contact powers had been disabled...  
  
Even as she was thinking, the silhouette was becoming clearer. Colours of purples and pinks swathed the misty figure, and horns began to sprout from an ornate headpiece. The mist cleared, and she was standing there, a lethal expression written on her evilly beautiful face. The crimson lips opened, leering cruelly at her.  
  
"Kome here and show our young lady who you really are."  
  
More footsteps. A smaller, more petite figure edged into view. Mist trailed behind her and she walked with a swaying step, almost as if she was unreal, surreal...  
  
Rinoa slowly looked up at the figure above her, first the white shoes, the white legs, the clinging dress, the narrow waist, the arms, draped with a filmy green shawl, the face -   
  
What Rinoa saw there almost stopped her heart.  
  
  
  
And miles away, tears streaming down his face, Squall Leonheart grasped the cool metal of the ring around his neck, praying that somehow, in some way, it would take him to the woman he loved.  
  
  
  
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	4. Time Kompression: Maybe I'm a Lion

Maybe I'm a Lion  
  
**Disclaimer; I wish i owned these characters...but I don't. Damn it! (excuse my language...)**  
  
PLEASE REVIEW! IF YOU'RE NOT INTENDING TO REVIEW, PLEASE EXIT NOW..ALTHOUGH I'D REALLY ADVISE YOU TO REVIEW...  
  
**This chapter's a lot shorter than the ones before, namely because I'm doing it in secret instead of my homework :)**  
  
Squall grasped the cool silver band that hung morosely on the chain around his neck. It lay against his skin; although the metal was cool, it seared like an eternity of ice-like fire. There was no other way to describe the feeling that shuddered through his body when the ring brushed his skin. Yet it made him feel complete; it took him to Rinoa, if only in ideals, if only in his visuals, in his mind's eye.  
  
He lifted a hand mechanically to his emerald-sapphire eyes to wipe away the liquid crystals beading the dark lashes. There had to be something he could do, somewhere he could go to find her. In his mind contact with "Ellone", he had been almost positive that he was talking to Ultimecia, a sorceress he thought he had defeated; yet it had been Ellone's voice, Ellone's way of speech. Was the sorceress trying to trick him, or was this all a horrendous double bluff? All that he knew for sure was that Rinoa was completely at her mercy, and that a plan called "Exterminatinon" was underway. And what could he do? Lie here immobilised on his dormitory bed, fighting the rising scream of sorrow and frustration within him. No. He would do something. He would save his angel.   
  
Squall closed his eyes, imagining the softness of her shimmering black hair spilling over her shoulders, the honey of her lips on his. Would he ever taste that honey again? Or was it now ambrosia; the sacred food of the gods, to be untouched by taboo, yet stolen by Satan, to never be touched by any deity again? The reality of the situation hit him with full force, all at once. The tears he had shed before, all the grief he had experienced up till now; all were overshadowed by the looming prospect of never hearing his angel's song again. Squall collapsed on the floor, the strength leaving him. "Oh, Hyne, Rinoa!!"  
  
***  
  
"Garden's falling apart." uttered slender, sapphire-eyed Quistis Trepe in low, urgent tones to her friends Selphie, Zell and Irvine. All of them were clustered on the bridge of Garden, debating on what course of action to take about Rinoa's disappearance. Selphie, usually exuberant and light-hearted even in the grimmest of situations was subdued, Zell's head was hung and his usually thrashing fists hung limply at his sides, and Irvine -   
  
Irvine was simply standing in taciturnity, a tear sliding from the corner of each eye.  
  
"I don't know what's happened, what's going to happen.", said Quistis, her voice shaking slightly. "Squall's a wreck - he seems to have lost faith, is even blaming himself - "  
  
"I know what you mean", whispered Selphie. "He keeps walking around like a zombie, muttering "If I hadn't had that dream, would she have gone? Was it me? Did I send her away?"  
  
Zell lifted his head, his eyes unusually wet. "What if Squall was sent the dreams? What if it wasn't his dream that caused her disappearance, but it was her disappearance that caused the dream? You follow me?"  
  
"Ye-es", said Quistis slowly. "But the only woman who can send people dreams - who we know - is Ellone. And Ellone is - "  
  
No-one was able to explain what Ellone was. Ellone was the sorceress? Extremely unlikely. Perhaps, it was just a decoy. A trap. But how were they to know for sure? There was only one way to find out.  
  
"We have to travel back to Ultimecia's reign. Into compressed time."  
  
That was Squall, breaking his silence. His lean figure was stationed on the platform of the bridge. His face was white, and streaked with tears, but his features were set and determined. His voice was firm and assured. The others automatically trusted him. There was something in his eyes that was telling them to believe him, to trust him -   
  
"Doctor Odine, in Esthar. We can ask him to send us back into the time warp. He'll - He'll know how. We have to concentrate our thoughts on that place, Ultimecia's castle. If we want to, we'll get there. We might get back. We might not. But it's our only shot. For - for Rinoa."  
  
As if he was proposing a toast, or even if he was giving the speech at a funeral, everyone sombrely muttered after him, "For Rinoa". With that, the plan was accepted, any qualms overruled. There was no turning back now.   
  
Squall raised his eyes up to the cerulean sky, squinting into the sun. He smiled, softly, gently, hoping that Rinoa would know he was thinking of her. Under his breath, he whispered to the wind,  
  
"I'll always love you, Rin. Don't stop loving me."  
  
The words had disappeared almost before he had said them, carried away on the balmy breeze that ruffled his jagged hair. His fingers found Rinoa's ring and stroked it gently. It would take him to her. It would help him. It was his friend, something reliable, something -   
  
***  
  
Aeons away, Rinoa Heartilly thought desperately, with her heart and soul combined in the thought, "For God's sake, Squall, don't put on the ring."  
  
  
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	5. Residents: An unknown love

RESIDENTS  
  
You know the drill. I don't own these characters. Square do, I think...  
  
**I changed the summary line for this fic to "Don't bother to read this" cos whenever there's a summary like that people always read it.**  
  
Residents  
  
The sapphire blue eyes were clouded with an unreadable expression - hope, compassion and pity all blended into an exotic, deadly, and refreshing cocktail. They were the eyes that no-one ever gazed into, nobody ever took the time to read, nobody ever - noticed. Someone would have to notice. And now was the perfect time.  
  
The figure, silhouetted against the door, shifted and looked down at the thin layer of dust on the floor. Never been seen in that way before. Never been loved, never been cared for, not that way. Not that way. When was the last time those lips had met anothers? Never before.   
  
The golden strands of hair wisped into the sapphire eyes and a slender hand reached up to push the lock behind a perfectly formed ear. So perfectly formed, so beautiful, yet brushed aside, never heeded. She had loved before, only to be rejected. She loved again now, and she had the perfect opportunity to show her love. First she had felt pity, then compassion, then hope in the name of love. Was she too late?  
  
That love she had held before, the love that still was resident in her heart, in that furthermost nook, the place she never let herself delve into. It hurt too much, far too much... She had to find love, no, she had love already. But was it returned? That "maternal" instinct she had thought was love, it was love, she had just never let herself think it out loud. She had overruled it, fallen in love with another. Rejected. Another rejection. She would not be rejected again.  
  
She gazed at the sleeping figure in the bed, the jagged brown hair streaking across the pillow. The thought of returning to time compression had worried him immensely. There were tear stains on his face, things she had never seen before. He was doing it for Rinoa.  
  
At the mention of the name, a pang of an unknown feeling shot through her heart. He didn't really love her, did he? He - he -   
  
He did love her, and she knew it. But why her? What did Rinoa have that she didnt have? Another pang shot through her, and she knew what the pang was this time.  
  
Jealousy. And perhaps -   
  
regret.  
  
Almost involuntarily, and almost against her will, she felt herself being transported back to that moment, the moment of her final rejection...  
  
***  
  
"Seifer?"  
  
There was a gentle knock on the door and the sound of a soft shuffling as the slender blonde bent to put her eye to the keyhole.  
  
"Seifer!"  
  
The tall, well-built male struggled out of bed, a half-smile spreading across his lips. He ran a hand roughly through his layered hair and tiptoed as softly as he could to the door and turned the key in the lock. With a soft click, the door swung open.  
  
"Darling!"  
  
She uttered it in a whisper, so as not to be heard, and threw herself into his arms. She cupped his face in her hands and kissed him passionately. When the kiss ended, she buried her face in the crook of his neck, whispering, "I wish we didn't have to hide."  
  
"Quisty - "  
  
Quistis pulled back slightly and looped her arms around his neck, planting featherlight kisses up the curve of his neck to his jawbone.  
  
"Why can't we come out? Why do we have to keep our relationship a secret, Seifer?"  
  
The look in Seifer's eyes was clouded with worry, an abrupt change from the look of complete control he always wore. Quistis had managed to lodge herself in his heart in a way no one had in a long, long time. But -   
  
Quistis widened her blue eyes questioningly, sliding her hands down Seifer's back.  
  
"We love eachother, right? We wanna spend the rest of our lives together, right?"  
  
Her beautiful rosebud mouth was slightly parted, willing him closer. He had to resist her -   
  
"We can't spend the rest of our relationship in secret, Seifer. We have to come out..."  
  
She raised her face to his and kissed him again. But he was different tonight; not the passionate man he usually was. That loving, caring look in his eyes was misted, that look that made her feel as if she was the most special person in the world was gone.  
  
Quistis disentangled herself from Seifer's unresisting embrace. "What's wrong, Seif?"  
  
"Quisty - I have to tell you something. It's - it's not good."  
  
Quistis narrowed her blue eyes. What was he trying to tell her? She could feel her cheeks glowing. "What is it, Seifer?"  
  
"Quisty - I don't think we should be together anymore."  
  
The words sliced through Quistis' heart like a sharp lance, splitting her very soul into pieces. How could he do this to her? He had loved her, had those wonderful moments, the beautiful kisses, the romantic words, meant nothing to him? She had thought he was the one. The one she would marry. Spend the rest of her life with. Why? Why?  
  
"Why?"  
  
Her voice was broken, quiet. "Am I not good enough? Was it not good enough for you, Seifer?"  
  
"I'm - I'm in love with - "  
  
***  
  
In love with. What did those words mean? She remembered him saying them as clearly as if it were yesterday. She would never have thought it. Seifer, in love with that woman? She hadn't believed it when he had said it. But she remembered turning away while the stupid, baby tears overcame her. Why was life not fair, why had he not loved her the way he had loved -   
  
***  
  
He'd said it. The tears spilled down Quistis' cheeks as she stared at Seifer, her love, not quite believing it. Seifer turned and walked quietly from the room, leaving the slim blonde with the tears flowing down her cheeks and no-one to stop them.  
  
***  
  
Quistis looked at Squall in his bed. Images of Rinoa, Seifer, flashed through her mind. She walked to the side of Squall's bed. She stopped for a moment, tracing a slender finger along his cheekbones, the chiseled contours of his face. She leant down, and shook him awake.  
  
Did it suck bad? Review please, my review ratio is getting worse, and worse, and worse. 


	6. You're not alone: Why why why?

You're not alone  
  
**Disclaimer; oh you know the drill...they don't belong to me, bla bla bla bla**  
  
**but the story does!**  
  
**Authors note: You really need to have read ALLthe previous parts to understand this part of the story**  
  
Please REVIEW it only takes a few seconds! My review ratio is slipping and slippin and slipping...  
  
  
**She forced her eyes to look upwards, into those calculating, empty vacancies, those hollow orbs that had once been...human. The dress was the same; the green filmy scarf was the same; but her limbs were limp, actionless.   
  
Could it really be Ellone? Ellone, who had helped them so much? Ellone, who had helped her?   
  
Then she thought back. She, too, had once been like this. Possessed by Ultimecia. The ethereal lagging limbs, the misty clones dragging behind her, all were the same. Ellone was possessed, dangerous, and for the time being at least, on Ultimecia's side...  
  
Ellone looked down at Rinoa with the hollow orbs. Ultimecia glared into Rinoa's face, grimacing in pleasure. She seemed to enjoy the look of utter puzzlement and amazement on Rinoa's face.   
  
"Soon, all the SeeDs will be wiped out! I will have my revenge! The plan is komplete. That ringleader, that kocky, interfering boy will be overkome at last!"  
  
"NO! He won't be!"  
  
The words exploded from Rinoa's mouth with vehemence. "He won't be overpowered!He's too strong!"  
  
"But my dear..." whispered Ultimecia dangerously. "He has already put on the ring. And when the ring is worn with his love engraved into it, it shall be his downfall. And it will be your love that will kill him."  
  
Rinoa did not fully understand Ultimecia's mystical prophesy, but she understood enough to make the blood freeze up in her veins.   
  
"And then, my dear"...  
  
The word "dear" was almost spat out, with cruelty and hatred and sarcasm and contempt in every harsh russian syllable,  
  
"We shall be killing you."  
  
And the evil silhouette that was once a young, innocent girl called Ellone whispered menacingly  
  
"Yesssss...."  
  
***  
  
Quistis leaned down and shook Squall gently by the shoulders. He shifted slightly in his sleep, a tiny moan escaping his lips. His forehead was furrowed and the silvery trails of tears shone on his cheeks and eyelids, making him glow with a silvered effervescence. He was so beautiful, so vulnerable. It was her perfect chance.  
  
She did love him, didn't she?  
  
Yes. The question passed out of her mind as she told herself the one syllable. She leant down again and shook him with more determination. He didn't need that girl. Causing him so much pain. Couldn't he see who was right for him, the girl he had known for almost his entire life? They were perfect for eachother.  
  
This time Squall's eyelids fluttered, and he squinted blurrily up at her with glassy eyes. He struggled into an upright position, rubbing his eyes gently with balled up fists.   
  
"Quisty...its the middle of the night..."  
  
"This couldn't wait, Squall."  
  
"Is Rinoa back?"  
  
His eyes lit up for a second, yet the hope and joy was dampened by the obvious, almost instant realisation that Quistis was there to tell him something else.  
  
Quistis shifted her position on the side of the bed. She reached up with a slim, supple hand and tugged off her ponytail band, letting the sleek golden waterfall of hair spill onto her shoulders and across her face. She threw back her hair and peered out from beneath her dark fringes of eyelashes with what she hoped was an alluring, seductive expression. "There's been something I've been meaning to tell you..." she murmured, edging closer. She had to get it over quickly, get it out. Couldn't he see how right she was for him?  
  
Squall rubbed his tired eyes again. He looked so haggard, Quistis reflected. He needed someone to love him. Obviously Rinoa hadn't done a very good job.  
  
"I'm - lonely tonight." She blurted out stupidly, and only then did she realise the foolishness of what she had said.  
  
"I meant - I meant - " What could she say? To endear herself to him?  
  
"I'm worried about Rinoa." She forced herself to say it. Of course, she was worried about Rinoa. She was another human being. But her bubbly ways and outright flirting had captured Squall's heart immediately, forcing her out of the picture. If Rinoa could do it, why shouldn't she? With Rinoa temporarily out of the way, Quistis could have a little fun of her own while comforting the distressed hero.  
  
"Oh Quisty. So am I. So am I."  
  
Squall tried to keep the tears from coming to his eyes, but he couldn't. What was happening to him? He, the strong Squall, crying uncontrollably? He buried his face in Quistis' neck and just let the tears flow, feeling safe and protected in her arms.  
  
Quistis could hardly stop the smile coming to her lips as she stroked Squall's soft hair, burying her hand in the shimmering strands. "Don't worry. Sssssh." She whispered mechanically, while thinking of what she could say next. He was in her arms, her promising cadet, her handsome -   
  
Now was the time to make her move.  
  
"Squall - don't you think it might be for the best?"  
  
Squall pulled away a little. His face was still wet with tears, but that vulnerable look was lost in the puzzled and wary look he was giving her.  
  
"For the best? Rinoa's gone - gone - and it might be for the BEST?"  
  
His voice was rising slightly, taking on a slightly hysterical tone. Quistis tried her best to put on an understanding yet somehow - alluring tone. She leant in to him, making sure he could smell her new perfume. The smell of garden roses emanated from her temples and neck.  
  
"I just meant - with her gone - you and I could get a chance to talk. We never got to talk, Squall. I've always found you kind of - special."  
  
Quistis was on a roll now, nothing could stop her. She was hardly seeing Squall's face, hardly even thinking about what she was saying. She just knew he wouldn't reject her. Not again. She had to be attractive to him. She had to.  
  
"Come on Squall, she'd never know. What would it be anyway? You might never see her again. Don't you think it might be better to give someone else a chance, someone you've known longer -"  
  
Her words weren't even making sense anymore, but her blue eyes were burning with such intensity that they urged her to continue. She pressed herself up against Squall's chest, her lips inches from his -   
  
"What does she have I don't have? Come on Squall, what have you got to lose? Try me. I have feelings for you. I've said it. I love you. Love me back Squall. You can't have really loved her, think of - "  
  
Her lips were a centimetre from his now. She knew he wouldn't say no now, how could he?  
  
"Kiss me Squall. You can forget about her. One kiss will change your world. I'm worth much more than she ever was - you won't regret it - "  
  
A violent push, something she hadn't thought him capable of doing, and she was sprawled on the polished floor of his dormitory. Her eyes teared as she stared up at him, his chest heaving, his clenched fists trembling.  
  
"DON'T TALK ABOUT HER IN THE PAST TENSE!" He roared, his voice tinged and edged with tears. Quistis scrambled to her feet and tried to touch his arm, but he shrank back from her.   
  
"What a low down thing to do." He whispered in rage. "Do you think I don't have feelings? I'm just something you can seduce? You don't think I already love somebody else? I love her, all right?"  
  
It was a horrible replay of the night so many years ago. "I love somebody else." The words played over and over in her mind, jumbling up, mixed and blended with her tears. She dissolved into tears and ran from the room. Rejected again. Was she worth nothing, to nobody? She had always wanted love. But nobody loved her. Squall loved someone else.  
  
What made it worse was that it was the same woman Seifer had loved, all those years ago, on that stormy, candlelit night.  
  
***  
  
**She thinks I don't have feelings? How dare she? My angel is worth so much more than she - that slut - ever was. I've never had feelings for Quistis. I've always liked her, respected her. But that respect is gone now. Acting as if Rinoa was a hopeless, lost cause. Trying to take her place! Trying to take her place! How dare she?? How DARE she?!**  
  
**What is this feeling? The rage seems to be choking me, but something else is choking me too. Something strangling me, tightening around my neck? What's happening? And why can't I see anymore?**  
  
**Scarlet, concentric circles swirling, this is it, the big one, the one that's going to kill me, I'm dead**  
  
**Maybe that's a good thing. NO! I can't think like that! I can't die! I have to stay alive! For my Angel! What's choking me? Why can't I breathe anymore?**  
  
**The chain? I can't move my fingers to feel it, but it is searing into my flesh like white-hot metal, i'm sure it is. Help me Hyne!**  
  
**Rinoa, I'm scared.**  
  
  
  
  
  
Tell me if you want a continue! If any of you don't review I shall not be continuing!I can check the hits and reviews! 


	7. Ride On: I wish I was dead

Ride On  
  
**Disclaimer: You know the drill**  
  
I'm sorry for the shortish chapters But I pretty much write these fics on the spur of the moment, you know, during my maths homework etc etc, whenevr I get inspiration! I'll write a lot of them to make up for the length!  
  
**And please don't sue me for what happens in this chapter!**  
  
Ride On  
  
The slender blonde trembled with anger, fear and disappointment as she raced through Balamb Garden's shining halls. The bubbling of the fountains, hollow, innocent, carefree things, roared in her ears, mocking her. Was she hideously unattractive? What had those other girls, that - other - girl - got that she hadn't got? What? The footsteps of people around her echoed grotesquely in her ears. They didn't care about her. How big was she in this universe? How important? Would anybody really miss her if she wasn't there?  
  
Squall wouldn't, that was for sure. He hated her, he had as much as told her. For an instant, she considered going back to his dormitory, why she wasn't sure, but the thought passed quickly out of her mind. She couldn't face him, not now, not ever. And once he had told the others -   
  
She shuddered at the thought.  
  
Once he had told the others, she would be hated. An outcast. Was there anybody, who had at any point, ever, ever loved her, cared for her, even bothered to see what was going on in her intelligent instructor's head? She thought Seifer had, once, but he had rejected her, for another. That other. That girl who had it all, who couldn't stop pulling in the men. Leaving nothing for Quistis. Poor, rejected Quistis. Pitied Quistis. Quistis, good for nothing except for telling people off, being a failed leader, a   
  
- failed leader. No leadership qualities. No men qualities. No qualities at all. No qualities at all.  
  
Without even thinking, Quistis found herself in the passage to the training centre. She halted. She hadn't any GF's with her to junction, and she'd left all her magic with Squall. Was it wise to venture in with only her whip?  
  
She quickly shied away from the thought. She could take care of herself. In fact, she didn't even care what happened to her anymore. The tears began to slide down her flushed, mottled cheeks as she whispered to herself,  
  
"I may as well be dead."  
  
She pushed open the tall, metal gates leading into the jungle-like, untames area, She was going to go to her secret place. Nobody knew about it except for her. She had taken nobody there except for herself. And -   
  
Seifer. But he was in her past. Sure, he was still living at Garden. But her relationship with him was purely business. After Ultimecia's defeat, she had hardly exchanged two words with him. Not that she cared. Not that he cared.  
  
She hurried up the path to the little wooden jetty. Good. Joker wasn't there. She didn't want anybody seeing her. The blackness of the night became even blacker, somehow, as she turned her face up to the stars to give one last prayer to Hyne. Looking around furtively, she dived into the tangled mass of tentacle-like bushes to her right. Scrambling through the tendrils that marred her way, she found herself in a little cave of leaves and branches. It was secluded, and only a few dancing spots of light broke through the tangles of leaves and stems above her head. Nobody would see her here. She wished she could stay here for the rest of her life. Nobody would miss her. What if she was dead? Would anybody miss her then?  
  
Quistis huddled down into a ball on the earthy floor of her hideout. She wouldn't miss herself if she was dead. Did it really matter? Once she was dead, she was dead. There was nothing she could do about it. Without thinking, involuntarily, she was reaching in her back pocket for her whip. She pulled it out silently and turned it over and over in her hands, caressing the strong, flexible cord. She held it up to her cheek and closed her eyes, imagining it was a pair of lips. A small voice in her head was screaming "STOP!" but she disregarded it. She moved the cord over her neck and halted it there. Something, deep down was telling her to stop now, stop before it was too late. But a stronger voice, a hysterical, broken voice was telling her "DO IT! DO IT NOW!"  
  
That voice was stronger. She reached up her other, trembling hand and touched her wet, pale cheeks. She would never feel them again. With a surge of energy, she took hold of the firm piece of cord and pulled it tight around her own neck. A feeling of choking and nausea overcame her. She tried to take a breath but couldn't. She wanted to let go, to breathe, but her hands had a will of their own. They disobeyed her and kept on pulling the cord, even tighter. It bit into her neck, cutting off her circulation, hurting the tender nerve underneath her chin. "STOP!" screamed the little voice, fainter now than ever. "NO! KEEP GOING!" urged the stronger voice, the hysterical voice, that was getting quieter, and quieter -   
  
It was so painful now she thought she would burst. But she couldn't stop now. With a final burst of energy and a final attempt at a gasp, Quistis' hands pulled the cord to its utmost limit and she slumped onto the floor.  
  
Was she dead now? She could still see, through blurry, teared eyes. The strength was leaving her, and she could feel her throbbing neck start to constrict. She tried to take gasping breaths, but her throat wouldn't work, leaving her airless, writhing on the floor. She was going to die. She should be happy. This was what she had wanted.   
  
She was so weak now it was a struggle to keep her eyes open. Was there a hint of flashing red and brown amongst those trees? She could hardly make her ears work, but she knew those thumping, thudding footsteps all too well. With an almighty roar, a claw swiped through the air inches above her lolling head, crashing through the leaves. Before everything started to flash and distort, Quistis caught a glimpse of a razor-sharp set of teeth hurtling downwards.  
  
***  
  
"What was that?"  
  
Seifer woke with a start. The silence was deafening, yet he could have sworn that he had heard something roar. T-Rexaur was never out and about at night, unless he had caught something moving in the Training centre. And anyone out in the Training Centre at this time of night was suicidal, to say the least. Seifer yawned copiously. What was the time? He looked on his dresser. It was just gone one o clock in the morning. Who would be in the Training Centre now?  
  
Seifer struggled out of bed. Much as he hated to admit it to himself, he wasn't the boss around here. He had to notify someone of the disturbance. It could turn out to be very dangerous. T-Rexaur was a terrifying predator. They'd need at least a party of three to combat him if he was on the loose. Especially is there was someone -   
  
What was he waiting for? Seifer's lack of movement annoyed even him. He yanked on his battle clothes and bolted around the corner to the dormitory closest to his. Quistis Trepe's.   
  
He hesitated slightly before opening the door. He wasn't really up to bursting into Quistis' dormitory in the middle of the night, not with their history. But hell, what was a few moments of awkwardness to a student's life? He turned the doorknob and stumbled in.   
  
"Quist - "  
  
Quistis wasn't in her dormitory. The sheets on her bed were rumpled, as if she had recently gotten up. To go to -   
  
"What was she thinking?" Seifer hissed to himself.  
  
Emotion after emotion drowned him. He had never regretted a moment so much as the moment he had told Quistis that he loved someone else. He had known, ever since that moment he had walked out of the dormitory, that he had been in love with Quistis all along, that other relationship - it was just a facade, an escape. He had been foolish, a power-hungry boy afraid of committing to a relationship. But he had been too scared to admit it to her, scared of being rejected. Now he could have lost her forever.  
  
Grabbing his gunblade, Seifer dashed down the candlelit halls towards the Training Centre.  
  
"Please, don't let me be too late".  
  
Voices in his head were screaming, screaming, screaming -   
  
Silence. He was in the Training Centre with no noise except for the soft swishing of fronds in the breeze. Where was Quistis? She might be -   
  
He racked his brains. The Training Centre was huge. There was no way he could search every inch of it. Then, it hit him. That secret place, the place she'd taken him to. That place where they'd shared their first moonlit kiss. The thought of her lips upon his, the gentle pressure, sent shivers crawling up his spine. What a fool he'd been to throw it away.  
  
Almost tripping over his own rushing feet, Seifer ran furiously down to the little jetty, looking around agonisedly until he saw the tiny dimple in the leaves. He knelt down and began to push his way through the leaves agitatedly. However, he was stopped by a sight that caused the blood to lie still in his brains. His pulse raced wildly and erratically.  
  
A cold, lifeless arm was stretched out from within the bushes, limp and covered in scratched. The knuckles were white and the fist was clamped around a piece of whipcord.   
  
"No." Seifer whispered, aghast.   
  
He pushed forward, afraid of what he was going to see.  
  
What he saw, once he had pushed aside the broken branches, ripped into disrepair by claws, made him sway in horror. He put a hand on the floor to steady himself. Quistis' lifeless body was sprawled face down on the earth, lying in a pool of crimson blood. The stains were seeping into the earth now, something final, something - almost dismissive. He scrambled to her side and supported her head.   
  
"Don't be dead, Quisty. I - "  
  
"I love you!" Seifer's eyes filled with salt, hot tears, and he didn't stop them from falling as he pressed two fingers apprehensively to her bruised neck to take her pulse.  
  
  
  
**Please review this! I'm sorry it was so short!**  
  
**I'll be deciding what happens to Quistis depending on the number of reviews...** 


	8. The old lie: Dulce et Decorum est, pro p...

**Disclaimer: Yeah, whatever.**  
  
**Please review me! Please! Please! (down on knees) I am only 13 and have not written very many fanfics so need constructive criticism...would be greatly appreciated...of course reviews without criticism would be appreciated 2!**  
  
I had requests for longer chapters so I am making this on as long as I can, without rambling...  
  
THE OLD LIE: DULCE ET DECORUM EST PRO PATRIA MORI...  
  
"Quisty!"  
  
The tall, blond male feverishly pressed two shaking fingers to the attractive blonde's cold, limp neck. He could feel nothing. Was she -   
  
"NO!"  
  
He lifted up her head and cradles it in his arms, brushing away the tangled mass of gold hair from her forehead. He picked up her wrist and tried to feel for a pulse there. She couldn't be - she couldn't be -   
  
There it was. Seifer kept his fingers upon the feeble, thready pulse, terrified that if he took his fingers away it would fade away completely. It was weak - so weak -   
  
"Quisty - can you hear me? Quisty?"  
  
His eyes teared with hot, salt water. If she died - if she died, he would never forgive himself. What he threw away - this - this swan could have been his -   
  
"Quisty, please!"  
  
***  
  
A haze, a misty diaphanous veil of raindrops was hovering in front of her eyes. Was it there? Or was it not? Did it really matter? Was she alive or dead? Nothing mattered, nothing mattered in this lazy, half-blissful, half-agony state of stupor.   
  
Someone was whispering something - whispering or shouting she could not tell...she could feel moving air on her cheek, warm, like breath, but that was all. She was numb from the neck down, and numb in her legs, but her chest felt raw, ragged, and almost as painful as her blistered heart. She tried to open her mouth to speak, but instead, a racking bout of coughs shuddered through her body. Some of the mist cleared and she was aware of splashes of blood on the white collar of her dress. A face was hovering above hers - that face -   
  
"Seifer..."  
  
***  
  
"Quist? Are you awake? Are you - are you all right?"  
  
He knew it was a stupid question as soon as the words left his mouth. Her face was white; chalk white, her sapphire eyes dilated and glassy. They were terrified eyes, scared and frightened, and somehow weighed with an infinite - sorrow that he was unable to fathom. The bloodless eyelids fluttered once, twice. The unsure movement gave him hope - she was still alive. Her mouth was dry and parched, and a thin line of crimson blood trickled from its corner, from her coughing fit. His eyes travelled down her body, taking in the blood-soaked dress, the scars and scratches on her white arms, and -   
  
What horrified and worried him the most was her crushed, useless leg; it was covered in scratches, the once flawless skin stained with rivulets of blood, and her ankle was completely snapped; a splinter of bone penetrating her delicate skin. He was astounded that, with her injuries, she was not screaming in agony. Then, a more sinister, more serious thought crossed his mind.  
  
"Quistis? Can you feel anything?"  
  
"Seifer...is that you?"  
  
"It's - it's me, Seifer. Can you see me?"  
  
"Yes - it's getting clearer. I - I can feel my face, and my chest, but the rest of me is - is numb. Completely- numb - "  
  
She was breathing heavily, and her speech was laboured. What worried Seifer most was the possibility of internal injuries he didn't even want to guess at. It was as if she hadn't even tried to defend herself.   
  
"What happened, Quist?"  
  
"I was here - in my secret - secret place. I was upset - a little shaky." Her eyes closed as if weighed down with some truth she felt the need to lie about. "There were claws - the dinosaur - and I don't remember anything else."  
  
"Can you move?"  
  
"I don't know", whispered Quistis truthfully. Could she move? She was worried; she was worried about her body, about her health. Was she going to live?  
  
"Seifer - How do I look?"  
  
"You look beautiful."  
  
An unspoken bond passed between them. The past? What was the past? When they could just live for the future, live for what was in front of them? It had always been Seifer, now and for ever. Anything else - anything else she had said or done, ever, had been for him, or because of him -   
  
Quistis choked back a sob and looked up at Seifer, with that soft, gentle look he had always adored. He stroked her hair and realised that he could never love anybody but her. Even if he got married, and lived with somebody else, or died, far away from anybody he knew or loved, his heart would be somewhere else. With Quistis.  
  
"I love you."  
  
The words, so simple, and yet so beautiful. Quistis, weak from loss of blood, felt a warmth spread up through the numbness of her limbs. She was loved. For the first time, she was actually loved. But -   
  
"Seifer - really. How do I look? Are my injuries bad?"  
  
" I - I can't be sure until I try to move you."  
  
Quistis felt his hand slip underneath her chest and lift her up. Almost immediately, a pain beyond any pain she could have ever imagined radiated through her ribs. With every breath she took the sharp pain grew sharper and more agonising, as if a dagger was hacking at her ribs and at the delicate tissue of the lungs underneath. She screamed involuntarily, a heart-rending scream that shattered Seifer's world. He knelt beside her prostrate form and supported her head as she dissolved into another desperate coughing fit. Droplets of blood spattered her neck and dress. He held her until the coughing subsided.  
  
"I - can't move. Not now."  
  
"We need help."  
  
"Seifer! Don't leave me!"  
  
Realising for the first time the hopelessness and seriousness of the situation, Seifer buried his face in his true love's cold neck and poured out his grief. Quistis could not feel the pressure of his head on her shoulder.  
  
***  
  
*Where am I?*  
  
*Constricting throat - helplessness - Rinoa? Angel. My Angel.*  
  
*Can I save her?*  
  
*Somebody answer me!*  
  
*Not - all alone - again?*  
  
*Am I - all alone?*  
  
**You're not alone**  
  
**Neither is Rinoa. Your darling Rinoa.**  
  
Squall realised that he could now open his eyes, and opened them slowly, letting the dingy light flood his pupils bit by bit. He was in some sort of metal walled room. A glass dome, reminiscent of the Sorceress Memorial was fixed upon the far wall. Inside it -   
  
"RINOA!"  
  
He scrambled to his feet, his head spinning. His Rinoa was trapped inside that inhumane thing, chained like a wild animal, struggling - what was this?  
  
Invisible hands were pulling him back, supernaturally strong hands. He fought and struggled but the forces were too strong. He was pulled down onto the floor and held there. He looked around agitatedly. Where was he and what the hell was going on.   
  
"Ah, Squall."  
  
"Ultimecia. So we meet again."  
  
Squall tried to keep his voice level, but inside, a smaller voice, was screaming, "We defeated her! What's she doing? Killing? Murdering? Rinoa? Murdering Rinoa? Rinoa! NO! Ans what about me?"  
  
"What do you want with Rinoa? You can keep me. But she has nothing to do with this."  
  
"Oh but she has everything to do with this. You'll see, poor misguided boy - "  
  
A streak of eletrical lightning shot towards the dome and reverberated off the glass. Rinoa, held captive inside, winced in shock.  
  
"The latent sorceress...she will have to be exterminated."  
  
The words were going on above Squall's head. He was in a play, with no part, no lines. All he could hear was the little voice screaming "NO! NO! NO!" He reached in his back pocket for the gunblade, but its familiar bulge was not there. His gunblade was not there. His only protection - stripped from him. It was all too much...  
  
What was he going to do?  
  
***  
  
Seifer stroked the side of Quistis' face. He couldn't leave her - he had to stay. How was he going to manage this on his own? He couldn't bear to see her in agony. He had to keep talking to her.   
  
"Remember when we first met, back at the orphanage, Quisty?"  
  
Quistis smiled lovingly, her smile sending a ray of warmth into his heart. Even when she was d -   
  
No! She wasn't - she wasn't - that. She was going to be all right. She was whispering something.  
  
"Tell me..." she murmured.  
  
***  
  
Seifer's voice was wisping into her mind, soothing her, cooling her. She was in bed and her parents were reading her a bedside story...  
  
No! She was with Seifer, the guy she loved. And he was telling her a story. Perhaps her true bedtime story -but no- she mustn't think like that -   
  
"I remember the first day we met," Seifer was saying, stroking her cheeks. "I remember the way the sun glinted off your long strands of hair, the way your eyes smiled shyly from underneath your eyelashes. I remember it all so clearly. Matron introducing us. We shook hands. Energy and friendship passed between us. I was too young to understand it then - " Seifer paused as if holding back a tear, "But It was love."  
  
"I remember your face when we were playing games. I was yelling at Zell, making him cry, or fighting with Squall, teasing him. You would try to break us up, your eyes shining with concern and anger all intermingled, your mouth fixed into a stern line - yet it was ready to blossom into a smile at any moment. All you needed was a little encouragement. And then you were the most radiant girl in the world."  
  
"Remember that night we set off fireworks? I led you over to the edge of the sea to watch them, and you dipped your toes in the water. The water that night was clear, lucid, and only rippled by a faint breeze. Remember? Remember the light, flickering?"  
  
She did remember. She could almost see the flickering lights now, the reds and yellows flickering off the leaves around her. Wait - it was flickering -   
  
"Seifer!" She interrupted urgently.  
  
"What? What is it?"  
  
"That light. Find out what it is..."  
  
Seifer turned anxiously and headed out of the bushes. The light was clearer now, both soft and dreamy, and hot and fiery.  
  
Seifer had returned, a strange expression on his face.   
  
"What is it? What is the light?"  
  
"Quisty - "  
  
"It's fire, isn't it?" Her voice was almost hysterical now. "Don't lie to me Seifer. The Training Centre is on fire, isn't it?"  
  
Seifer paused, drawing breath.   
  
"The Training Centre is burning." He said finally, stumbling over his words. "The Grats' magic has spilled over, giving the Centre an overload of fire magic. It's pretty serious. I won't lie to you. And - "  
  
"And, Quistis, if I can't move you out of here, and fast, we're both going to be stifled to death. Soon."  
  
***  
  
"What was that?" Selphie scrambled out of bed. The noise was still there - a kind of roaring. She headed next door to Zell's room. The noise was getting louder, more crackly.   
  
"Zell? Zell!"  
  
The well built macho youth yawned and looked at Selphie's concerned, yet flushed face. "Sefie - what is it? Spider in your bedroom?"  
  
"That noise? What is it?"  
  
Zell only had to listen for a second to realise what it was. "Holy Hyne Sefie, that's fire! And it's coming from the Training Centre! That means trouble!"  
  
Zell was already out of bed, pulling on his uniform and gloves. "If there are monsters out there at night, I'll need to go down there."  
  
"Shouldn't I come too? It isn't safe alone - "  
  
"Sefie - go get Squall. Tell him to come and help me as quick as he can. This is an emergency!"  
  
With that, Zell was gone, fists held out in front of him, face creased with worry. Selphie ran out after him, heading down the narrow corridor to Squall's dormitory. He'd know what to do.  
  
***  
  
"Squall?"  
  
Selphie peeked cautiously around the door to his dormitory and nearly did a double take. Everything was immaculately neat, the bed made, the desk organised. But Squall -   
  
Squall was nowhere to be seen.  
  
And on the floor, broken into a million jagged silver pieces, was the mutilated corpse of his faithful Lionheart Gunblade, shattered into ominous disrepair.  
  
***  
  
And on the other side of Balamb Garden, the omniescent, celestial eye of life was closing ever so slowly...  
  
  
  
Continue? Or not? Will Zell be too late to save the young lovers? I'll be basing that on the number of reviews!! 


	9. Futility: The End

TYGER, TYGER, BURNING BRIGHT  
  
**Disclaimer: yeah, I dont own any of the characters...**  
  
**I appreciate constructive criticism...I'm 13 and haven't written many fanfics...**  
  
TYGER TYGER BURNING BRIGHT  
  
Tyger, Tyger, burning bright  
  
In the darkness of the night...  
  
Burning bright...  
  
Eyes, paradoxically and eternally reflected in the millions of wavering, unsure, yet fiery slivers that sway seductively to the moon's quiet song, roaring in a choir of silvery whispers. Leaping, dancing, mingling, they shed their flickering light onto the debris of green leaves and twigs that litter the floor. Soon they are consumed, engulfed by this magnificent and deadly wall of radiating light, emanating heat, dangerous and alluring fire.  
  
Burning Bright.  
  
**  
  
"Quisty! We have to - we have to - "  
  
The blonde male bent over the slender, injured body of the girl he loved, the light of the fire outside their leafy bower illuminating the silvery trails of tears on his cheeks and the shine of perspiration on his forehead; both from the heat and the agony. He lifted up her head and supported it in his barely shaking arms. He trailed a finger down her cheekbones, her jaw, her chin, leaving a searing trail where his fingers touched.  
  
"What are you doing?"  
  
The words were choked by the acrid smoke starting to pour in, but were clear, enunciated, lucidity itself. Her eyes were starting to fill with water, starting to sting, yet she kept them open. She wanted to be able to see Seifer, when she died.   
  
"Getting to know you."  
  
She looked up at him. She had never been like this before. She couldn't believe the swell of love she was feeling for the man kneeling beside her, in the midst of such destruction. The expression on his face was one she never thought she would see again. He couldn't die. She wouldn't let him die.  
  
"Seif - "  
  
"NO!"  
  
He knew what she was trying to tell him. Save himself. He couldn't move her on his own. She was telling him to leave her, to leave her to die. He couldn't do that! He would never forgive himself.  
  
But what else was he supposed to do?  
  
Quistis knew what he was thinking. He had to leave. She couldn't be the cause of his death. She knew - she could feel - she was going to die. He was living in a pretence, staying with her. She had to make him go. She had to make him leave. She had to make him save himself.  
  
"Seifer - you can go - to get help. To get help. You can't move me alone."  
  
"I don't want to leave you..."  
  
"It's the only way..."  
  
She knew she had convinced him now. His face was furrowed in concern and thought. Then he came to a decision.  
  
"I'll be right back. I promise..."  
  
"I know. I know. Seifer - "  
  
"Yes, darling?"  
  
"Tell - tell Squall I'm sorry."  
  
Seifer didn't ask why. But her words disturbed him. In more ways than one.  
  
"You'll be able to tell him yourself, when we rescue you. Quistis. When we rescue you."  
  
Quistis knew she had to play along, play along with his pretence that she would live. She had wanted to die anyway. Why was letting him go so...hard?  
  
"Of course I will...but I might be unconscious...you know."  
  
Seifer nodded, and lowered his lips to her bloodless ones. The soft pressure made her feel complete. As he got up to crawl through the bushes, to walk away, away from the flames, away from her, she wanted to scream...  
  
*NO! DON'T GO!*  
  
"Seifer!"  
  
He turned around, the tears shining in his eyes. He would save her, no matter what.  
  
"What is it, Quisty?"  
  
"I...I love you Seif."  
  
"I love you too, Quisty."  
  
Then his lean figure had disappearead, disappeared into the shadows that flickered and danced in vehement mockery of her futility.  
  
Oh why did fatuous sunbeams shine,  
  
To break earth's sleep at all?  
  
***  
  
"Holy Hyne..."  
  
Zell stopped in his tracks and stared in horror at the raging inferno before him. Flames were licking at every tree and every twig, consuming every thing in sight. Billows of acrid smoke were pouring out from the gates. If there was anyone in there...  
  
Zell shook his head in terror and agitation.  
  
If there was anyone in there, they were dead.   
  
Just as Zell took a tentative step forwards, a lean, panting figure emerged from the gates, coughing and spluttering. The white trenchcoat was stained with - blood?  
  
"Seifer? Are you - are you all right?"  
  
Seifer leant down and placed his hands on his knees, gasping for breath. "I'm fine...but..."  
  
The truth dawned on Zell, ever so slowly. "There's somebody else in there?!"  
  
"Quistis."  
  
"Quist...oh HYNE! It's an inferno in there Seifer! We have no equipment, no extinguishers..."  
  
"She;s injured." Seifer's voice was rising. "She's helpless and alone. We're going in there, if it kills us, I swear, I would die rather than leave her to be burned alive in there."  
  
There was a brief pause while Zell gathered strength and courage.  
  
"Junction all the water magic you've got, man. Leviathan too, incase we meet with any fire monsters. We're going in there."  
  
***  
  
Selphie knelt down and caressed the broken pieces of Squall's Lionheart gunblade, finally broken. It had lost all its lustre; it simply was a dull silver now, no longer the rainbow of pearls it had once boasted. What did this mean? Was Squall...  
  
Selphie wrinkled her youthful brow. First Rinoa and now Squall! Were they linked, somehow, inextricably? They couldn't be - they couldn't be dead?  
  
She picked up a piece of the shattered blade and ran her trembling finger down the tip, along the engraving of the lion, its mouth stretched open grotesquely in a magnificent roar of victory.  
  
Only then did she notice the ring upon the floor. No chain. Just the ring. Squall's ring. Rinoa's ring.  
  
She picked it up and turned it over and over in her delicate white hands. Here was the engraving - and the words, "Griever", written on the inside. Griever...they had defeated him. Ultimecia's minion. She had always wondered why his name was written in Squall's ring. She held the ring up to the light, where it glinted evilly in her eyes. The inscription caught the light and its bevelled edges twinkled like tiny diamond chips in a silver, storm-ridden sky. "Griever..." she breathed. The tiny engraving was - was it moving? Moving, the tiny wings beating uselessly within the ring, straining, growing bigger - the ring couldn't restrain it...what was happening?  
  
The ring splintered into a thousand silver pieces which rained down upon her like a million minute needles. The light that confronted her was so blinding, and the smoke so all-obscuring, that she was momentarily blinded, the rainbow patterns dancing frantically in the dark abyss behind her eyelids.  
  
The smoke was clearing...and a monster, the grotesque form of the GF they thought they had defeated, hovered above her, its claws positioned above her head. She turned to run but was frozen by a quick "Stop" charm. As she stood there, hopelessly rooted into place, her thoughts raced wildly. Only one thing stood out, clear in the umbled mass of terror that engulfed her...  
  
"Griever...trapped forever in a ring..."  
  
***  
  
The Galbadian cowboy lay face up on the bare mattress, his face flushed and his eyes narrowed. The ceiling flickered and died as the prickling behind his eyelids started again. What time was it?  
  
He wasn't sure, but he knew it was early. He tugged off his ponytail ring and the soft, silky chestnut hair fell to his shoulders. It wisped around his neck, tickling his ears. He raked a hand through it impatiently, frustratedly. What was he going to do?  
  
Rinoa's disappearance had come as an enormous shock to him. It had affected everyone. He didn't know why, but he had always been close to Rinoa. She would always listen to him, and was always so sweet and willing. He wasn't attracted to her, no; even when he had made that pass on her in that train, so long ago, he had never really been in love. Sure, she was young. Sure, she was cute. And he had liked to flirt. But he had never truly been attracted to anybody.  
  
Until now.  
  
Her youthful, bubbly face shimmered before him, the shining hazel eyes smiling into his, the flick of maple-brown hair bouncing at her shoulders. Her ridiculously short dress was rippled slightly by the wind, the bright yellow shining in the sun. Why couldn't he pluck up the courage to tell her how he felt? His sunshine.  
  
His sunny Sefie.  
  
Determination filled him. He rose from his bed. Forget anybody else. Just think about him, and Selphie. Forever. The rest of the world could stop turning, just for them. The world WOULD stop turning. He would make it so. For his sunshine.  
  
***  
  
"Quisty!"  
  
The acrid smoke made the word dissolve into a hacking cough, but Seifer plunged on through the wall of fire. Behind him, Zell conjured up another quenching jet of water which extinguished a path for them, through the bushes, to Quistis.  
  
"She's in here!"  
  
Seifer scrambled through the tangle of creepers, horrible, insidious things that turned their backs on him, mocking him in his futility.  
  
If anything might raise him now  
  
The kind old sun will know.  
  
The sun gave no light now; only the roaring flames, murderous flames, licking at his heels. He could see her body now. Was she unconscious?  
  
"Quisty!" He was at her side in an instant. Zell joined him quickly. The heat was stifling. The flames were threatening to burst into the small hideout at any moment.  
  
"Is she..."  
  
Seifer looked down at the ashen face and realised the answer in that one instant. He leant down over her, sliding a hand under her slim back.  
  
She was his everything. She was his morning star. And she was supposed to have waited for him.  
  
  
  
  
  
What do u think? Don't sue me now, you haven't read the next part of the story yet! Please review so I can decide whether 2 continue or not!!  
  
  
  



	10. Angel's return...

GRIEVER VS. ULTIMECIA  
  
Due to the good reviews I got on the previous chapters, I've decided to continue with the story. I'm sorry it's taking me so long but I have alot of schoolwork at the moment....I'm also sorry the story is so long but I don't want it to end...I love writing...  
  
*Disclaimer: how many of these have I written? You can probably guess what this is supposed to say. I OWN FINAL FANTASY! Ok, you weren;t expecting that....alright alright, I don't own it, my beautiful moment of limelight is over!*  
  
**I'd suggest you read the previous chapters to get a good idea of the subplots...**  
  
GRIEVER VS. ULTIMECIA  
  
"Griever...trapped forever in a ring...."  
  
The words echoed noisily inside her jumbled mind as the blurry, somehow real, somehow holographic form of the monster she had once battled, in the past, present, and future, loomed before her. She had no magic, she had no GF's junctioned and she did not even have the draw command. She was rooted to the spot by a stop spell and she has no power of movement. She ran these thoughts through her brain with an almost matter-of-fact air, no description of the fear and terror she was feeling right now. So, she was going to die, then.  
  
This must be what true terror felt like. Not knowing. She tried to think of him for one last time. Why hadn't she said anything to him? She would never see him again. Sir Laguna had been cute, but he outshone him. Her cowboy.  
  
The air around her was filled with the night sky, all too suddenly. Shockwave Pulsar. The ultimate spell. She felt her immobilised body being thrust upwards and over, rocked in the throes of the light and heat radiating from the centre of the gravitational orb. She could feel, in that one instant, the life draining away from her body, the pain, terrible pain that almost numbed her soul, the searing trail it engraved into her skin and bones...she was doomed. And she had never had the chance to...do so many things she had wanted to do....  
  
**My life was ruined at seventeen  
**Not cut out to be a dancing queen...  
  
The words from the 1970's song thrust into her like a dagger. She'd tried to be bubbly, tried to involve herself in things to get away from the fact that...she was alone. No boyfriend. And how she'd wanted one. Everything was a farce. Everything she'd ever done - since her childhood - what was she, anyway, on this earth? A dot? Less than a speck of dust?  
  
Another blast of magic. It hit her in the solar plexus and she sank to the floor in agonising pain. Was the world turning blood red around her? She was looking at the room through tinted shades...the world tilted crazily up to meet her crumpling body as the last of her HP was sucked away.  
  
*Irvy! Help me please!*  
  
***  
  
His gunblade - where was it?  
  
His pupils dilated in fear and horror, pain and understanding. He was helpless. For the first time, handsome, brave, Squall Leonheart was helpless and unable to defend himself. He looked up at Rinoa's slim frame, trapped inside the glass bubble. A recollection flashed into his memory, of the day he'd rescued her from the sorceress memorial. A slow and painful montage sequence played in his mind...  
  
***  
  
Her face was pale in the wind, but two rosy blushes appeared in her cheeks. They were white with fear, but she was trying not to show it. She turned to leave, and something made him shout after her. "Rinoa - don't go! Please!"  
  
She turned around, the inky blackness of her hair flying against the wind. That made it harder to bear. Like the world was making her more beautiful in that one moment, just to spite him...  
  
**I have to go Squall....** But why? Why did she have to go? Why did she always have to go? She belonged with him...  
  
**Keep it...** Keep what? His ring, of course. She'd fingered it, lovingly almost, affectionately. Her lips murmured something, mumbling awkwardly, rushed, as if she wanted to get something out but couldn't. "Thank you."  
  
The sequence was blurry in his mind. Why was he daydreaming now? Faced with Ultimecia, an extermintation of the whole of existence as he knew it - and his mind was collapsing before him, swamped by memories, memories...  
  
**I was scared - I couldn't - fight alone - "  
  
Her crumpled body on the floor. He'd knelt down beside her, picked her up. His lips had been so close to hers, her dark eyes had been staring into his - the missed opportunities, the waste of it all!  
  
God, what a waste.  
  
**Just stay close to me.**  
  
Yes, that was what had started it. Him and Rinoa. The love, that had always been there. The love he had been too scared, too foolish to show her.   
  
He started, and with a sudden burst of energy, hurled himself against her glassy prison. The glass slipped underneath his body. He pounded against it, pressing his hands against the smooth surface as if the pressure would break it somehow, but every time he pounded a fist against the glass the girl inside winced. She was - he was...  
  
"What the...."  
  
The voice behind him made him start.  
  
"Everything you do to save her will hurt her, Squall."  
  
Ultimecia was behind him now, her sensuous breath hot on his neck. He spun around to face her, trying to keep his face from crumpling. Her lips were trembling with seductive mockery. What was she trying to do?  
  
"Let me show you something......"  
  
He watched her outstretched palm, spellbound. An orb grew in the middle of it, luminous radiant. A monster, swirled in the concentric circles, hatched from the centre of the orb. His ring...its image hovered over the monster for a fleeting instant, and it shattered. The broken pieces spilled out of the orb and tinknled at his feet. The orb disappeared.   
  
"You see? Griever is free. He is my minion. Hurting everybody you love."  
  
"Just kill me." He whispered, his voice low and controlled. "Kill me, and let my friends go. And - let Rinoa out of that - that - "  
  
"Oh no Squall." The face was so close to his now, the eyelashes brushing his cheeks. "That would spoil the plan. If you don't want us to kill her..." The smile was a distinctive leer now. "You'll have to do exactly what we say."  
  
***  
  
She was supposed to have waited for him.  
  
The words trembled in his mind, held infinitely in that eternity, the eternity that had frozen time for just those few seconds. He gazed down at the grey face. He reached down with a finger and hestitated. For a reason unknown to him, an unknown taboo seemed to protect the dead woman's skin. He leant over her and buried his face in the cold neck. The flames had been hot, fiery. Her neck was cold, bloodless...dead. If only he'd stayed with her - if only -   
  
Seifer blinked back the tears, mortified that she'd breathed her last breaths to find herself alone. Alone in a burning jungle. He hadn't been by her side. What a coward he was.  
  
The splashes of blood were gone now. The roaring flames were gone too. The quietness of the infirmary deafened him. The starched white sheet covering her body was almost defiant; its pureness, simpleness, innocence - open-ness, was so the opposite of what her life had been. Her life had been short, but - she had lived how she had wanted to live. Quistis was a fiery woman, underneath her shyness. Why had he let her go?  
  
Failed leadership qualities...those Garden Faculties had had no idea what they were talking about. Quistis had always been insecure about herself. He should have been there to reassure her. He - he should have been with her, to the very end.  
  
He would never see her laugh or smile again. He thought of all the times she had been happy, and a great wave of sadness overcame him at the thought that her lips would never move again, her eyes would never again be opened. Why - why was she dead? Why?  
  
He remembered something he'd thought when he had first seen her body. *It's almost as if she hadn't tried to defend herself.* Had she? He tentatively reached forward and peeled the white sheet off her body. He stifled a gasp. Her smooth, creamy skin was covered with slashes and scars. The blood had been cleaned away now, but the scars marred the once unblemished skin. Around her neck - what?  
  
Seifer lifted up her head and cradled it in his arms. Bruises and stretchmarks. T-Rexaurs wouldn't stretch something around her neck. Neither would they cause bruises. Which would mean - she had caused them herself?  
  
There was no suicide note. Why would she want to kill herself? And why - why hadn't he been there, as a friend and as a lover, to comfort her and to stop her from doing something stupid, something that was irreversible?  
  
"Quisty..." he whispered to the still body. "Can you hear me....?"  
  
"No. Of course you can't. You're dead. Still....I need to tell you - I'm - I was - I mean - I've always loved you Quisty." Seifer rushed chokedly. "I - just couldn't tell you. I - I was scared. I know - if I'd been more mature, had only realised what I felt - we could have been together - forever. It would have been you and me forever, Quisty. Always."  
  
Seifer felt the tears coming. What was the use of resisting them?  
  
"Hyne must be so happy, Quisty!" He sobbed unrestrainedly. "One of his angels is coming back to heaven."  
  
  
  
  
  
Review please! Shall I coninute?  
  
  
  
  



	11. Silver in death, Silver in life, and Sil...

# Hyne's rejection of fate…

**Disclaimer….yeah, whatever!**

I thought that I'd mention that this is my first time trying to do the html thing, so if it comes out completely weird on the screen tell me and I'll go back to using boring old .txt format!

So here it is….the long awaited chapter following Quisty's death…

## Hyne's rejection of fate.

### Nothing will wake her now…

### The sun hides behind its silver crown

_And makes of his tears a glimmering shroud._

_ _

The sound, soporific and melancholy. The silence, utter silence in the Quad. She wouldn't have wanted it to happen anywhere else. This was her home, her whole life. This was her microcosm; her first promotion, here. Her first rejection, here. Her first lesson, here. Her first weapon, her first GF's, the first time she…

Her first love, here.

Seifer bent his head and closed his eyes. Could he remember the first time they'd kissed? Of course. Of course he could. Would he ever, ever forget? And it had been here, here in this very Quad. The moment that would make and break his world. He had been in love; now he knew. That feeling of joy, that rising, bubbling feeling that had risen in his chest every time he had seen her; it had been love, and a love stemmed from trust, truth and friendship. The body was gone, but the memories, they stayed with him, the mind, not with the empty body that was gone. He let his mind wander, freely, through the arid and barren desert in his mind. It led him back to his first kiss. His first kiss with Quisty.

Seifer drank in the cool night air and gazed around him. The quad was silent, blissfully silent. Away from the crowds of milling people inside the garden, away from training, practice, hunting, killing, wounding – he was blissfully alone, and with his thoughts. 

The moon was silver tonight; a particularly luminous effervescence of an orb, resplendent in all its shimmering glory, veiled like a newlywed in her glimmering shroud of darkened mist. It silvered the leaves and branches of the trees around him, silvered the floor of the Quad. It silvered the air around him so that each tiny atom of his being was purely silver, silver in bliss and delight. Silver peace. The fish were moveless in the silver stream that ran silently by the stage. Everything was … 

"Who's there?" Seifer heard a slight rustle, a decidedly non-silver rustle. Just when he thought he could be alone, someone came barging in. Tell him it was time for practice, time for bed, time to do this, do that, do – 

"Who is it?" He repeated harshly.

"I – I-m sorry. I thought there – that there was nobody here." A slender figure came into view as the slim blonde emerged from the steps of the Quad. Quisty. Of course. His instructor was here to tell him what to do, wasn't she? Yeah right, she thought there was nobody here.

"Pull another one. What do you want me to do?" Seifer cocked an eyebrow at the open-faced, pretty young woman. He couldn't help noticing the silver halo the moon wove around her sleek golden hair. The moon outshone the sun. Its silver silence muted the brazen gold in the night. The moon reigned during the night. The darkness welcomed the hoary glow of the moon and enveloped it in a black embrace. Seifer shook himself back to his senses. No time for getting poetic now.

"I just came here – to be alone." The words came out of Quistis' mouth as a whisper. Seifer felt a slight jolt in his chest. "You – you come here to be alone?"

"All the time. Though usually – a little later than this. I just need to have some time with my thoughts – you know?" Quistis looked at him. How could she expect arrogant Seifer to understand? Why had she told him?

But Seifer's face was wondering, almost – happy? "Me too. It's like I need to – have some space. Like there's too much going on."

"Exactly!" Quistis was vehement. Her feelings, coming out of Seifer's mouth! It was so unlikely it was almost – but she found herself speaking, inching closer and closer to him…

"Sometimes – I can't handle myself. It's almost as if the things inside myself need to drift away…as if I…"

"Was burning them. I know." Seifer's voice was husky and barely echoed in the cool stillness.

"You feel the same way?" Her voice was low now, though still silvery and almost as sweet as honey. Her sapphire eyes caught the light and shone silver; her lips, shining with eagerness, so willing…her cheeks, highlighted, resplendent in the moonlight…

He had only time to whisper… "You look b…"

Before their silvered lips met in the kiss they'd been dreaming of all their orphaned lives.

Their lips clung to eachother, at first clumsily, but then, as each of them realised what was happening, with more passion, more maturity. His hands found her hair and played with the soft strands in the most sensuous way she could imagine. She placed her soft fingers on his waist. He pulled her close and looped his arms around her waist. It was almost as if he was saying, "I love you too much to let you go." Nevertheless he said nothing, just drank in the sweet taste of her lips pressed against his and the soft wisps of golden hair tickling the nape of his neck.

The moon wove her silvery threads around them, her celestial light bonding the two young lovers with the ring of life. 

Seifer shook his head thoughtfully. Why couldn't he have seen that she was the one for him? _The _one?

He cast his mind back to the troubled waters of the note he'd found. The note, tucked deep inside Quisty's crushed boots, that he'd found while sorting through her things. He remembered feeling the crisp white paper, opening it agonisingly slowly. The note was creased and lined, but clear. He'd scanned the words. The writing was rushed and cramped, and smudged with tearstains. The note troubled him immensely. Why would she want to – to – take her own life? If Squall had been around, or even Rinoa – he would have shown it to them. Asked why. But all around him, his friends were disappearing, deserting him.

Why hadn't he been there for her? Perhaps – perhaps his love could have shown her that her life was worth living.

He took the piece of off-white paper out of his pocket and bent his head over the writing. He scanned the lines for the hundredth time. Why?

### 

To whoever reads this…

First of all; Squall, I'm sorry. For the things I've said, and done. I've abandoned you, played with your heart, and hurt you in ways I could never have imagined possible. But I just can't face ever seeing you, or anybody else again. I can't take all of it. It's – I cant describe it, but it is like a wall of sadness that keeps on rising and piling up, the rejections on top of it all, and suddenly it has all come crashing down, I'm floundering in the middle of it, I don't know what to do except for this. I feel like I'm an outsider. You'll be better without me. I promise. Everything I love I can never have, and I can't live with that.

Rinoa; I'm sorry. For being sceptical of you, for not appreciating your bubbly nature, for – for everything. After all, it's not really your fault that – no, you don't need to know. 

Selphie, Irvine, Zell…the most wonderful friends anyone could ask for. You helped me over my ups and downs, taking me every step of the way. There was no way you could have handled my final and ultimate rejection. It wouldn't have been fair. Just remember, I'm your friend, now and always, In this world and the next.

Seifer…I won't be coming back. Maybe you'll miss me. Maybe…maybe you'll never be able to miss me, in **that** way. Just please – find a place in your heart, however small, where I can stay, blossom and grow, throughout your life and generations afterwards. The heart will never die and neither will I. I love you.

Quistis Trepe

It was the last part – the part regarding him that brought the tears to his eyes. He tried to wipe them away as he stuffed the letter bitterly back into his pocket, but they were coming faster than he could wipe them away. If there was a person who had driven her to do this, if there was some way he could avenge her death – he would do it. 

"Quisty…" he murmured beneath the tears. "There will be a place in my heart and soul for you. There is now, there was before, and always will be. I love you."

He looked up and an ephemeral, sorrowful smile fleeted across his tearstained face as he lightly replaced the filmy black veil on top of the woman he loved. The grave was freshly dug beside the coffin. The funeral would be tomorrow. Selphie, Irvine …they would be devastated when Zell told them. After they'd returned to the infirmary, Zell had gone, with his bowed head, and the tears oozing silently out of his eyes, to tell the others. The smell of earth stung his nostrils. First Rinoa, Squall, and then Quistis. Who would know when another friend would disappear. Now he understood Squall. Why – why attach yourself to people when they will eventually leave you?

At least Selphie and Zell had someone's shoulder to cry into. Selphie – Irvine – the sparks had been there from the start. Zell – the library girl, of course. He, Seifer, had nobody.

He looked at Quistis' coffin, lying dismally on top of the quiet earth. She was safe now. Nothing would hurt her, ever again. She would never grow old, never experience another hurt or sadness.

Safety was hers at last.

"What shall I say?" Irvine mumbled to himself. It was early in the morning, but this couldn't wait any longer. He was at the door to Selphie's dormitory now. He hesitated slightly before pushing open the door.

The dormitory was empty. 

Where would Selphie be at this time of the morning, Irvine wondered to himself. He pushed a stray long of chestnut hair out of his eyes and caught sight of a small note on the dresser. 

"Zell – I went to Squall's room, I'm just getting him. Come there if you need me. I promise I'll be quick. Luv, Sefie…"

Irvine wrinkled his brow, puzzled. He wasn't exactly keen on Squall hearing what he wanted to say to Selphie. Maybe if he could get her privately – 

Irvine set off at a quick pace to Squall's dorm room, just down the hall. "Second on the right," he mumbled to himself as he pushed open the mahogany door. "Selphie, you're in for a big surpr…"

A roar, a beating of wings, a looming face set with rows of gleaming teeth. Selphie – dead? No, just KO'D! Must revive – what? What's going on? Save Selphie! Don't think of anything else! Ask – ask questions later – 

Irvine took his place beside Selphie and quickly used a Full-life on her. Sparks flew and moonbeams crossed over from the heavens. Selphie groggily picked herself up. Her eyes widened as she remembered where they were. "Irvy –"

Irvine quickly cast an aura on himself. His mind was in a blur of thought, colour, terror – 

### Pound, pound, pound…

_ _

Irvine let loose his devastating Limit Break and pounded Bullets into the monster. Behind him, Selphie cowered, terrified, not quite recovered from her frightful ordeal. He had to kill this thing – had to defeat it – 

### Griever…

_ _

Kill, kill, kill…

### Undefeated…

_ _

Pound, pound, pound…

### Immortal…

_ _

Losing strength…

### Exterminate!

_ _

Selphie! I love you!

### Shockwave Pulsar…

_ _

Demolition Ammo…Eden! Come to me!

### Eden?

_ _

Oh, Hyne, thank you!

### Nuclear? My utter fate is sealed…

_ _

Is it dead? Is Selphie okay?

_Rgahhhhhhhh…._

_ _

SELPHIE!

The monster writhed grotesquely as it was hurled back to the ground. It shook a little, twitched, and finally exploded in streams of optic light, nearly blinding. Irvine closed his eyes and felt like he was being whirled in a tornado. His mind was dizzy – so dizzy – everything was black – 

He opened his eyes and found that Selphie was in his arms.

He looked down at her and saw her milky white face, her terrified eyes. Yet she was smiling bravely.

"Sunshine…" He tightened his arms around her and supported her in his embrace.

"I was scared…"

What was he doing? She'd just been traumatised. He wasn't meant to be – 

But it felt so right…

"Ssssh…" His mouth was millimetres away from hers now. He brushed the damp hair away from her forehead tenderly. "It's okay. I won't let anything hurt you. I'm here."

"Always?" From the look in her wide eyes, he could tell that she wasn't sure he meant what he was saying.

"Always." Before their lips met softly in the shadows of the destructive room, he saw by the light in her eyes that she believed him.

He pulled away from the kiss and looked down at her. So many things were unclear – so unclear…"

"Why? How? And…"

"No!" Selphie whispered the word, but it was vehement. "Not another word. Don't speak, Irvy. Explanations later. I've just waited so long…"

Her lips were on his again, her hands finding his hips and staying there. He pressed her to him, basking in the glory of that moment. Light was streaming down on them from the heavens. It was their destiny…

He leant in for another kiss, but just as their lips brushed, the door of the dormitory was flung open. A sharp intake of hurried breath, a choked sob, and the rushed stream of words that would change his life forever.

"It's over, Selphie. Quistis is dead."

I'm sorry not much happened in this one, but I wanted to take some time to describe people's feelings and emotions, and also to tie up the Ievine/Selphie. I promise there'll be some Squinoa in the next bit. Will Ultimecia win?


	12. Do you love me or not?

# Oh, truly mine!

**Disclaimer: You know I didn't invent these characters, so why should I even bother?**

**Please review me: It helps me to decide which parts were better than others and what needs improvement and what doesn't…**

"What?"

The word cut into the silence like a knife; so rude, so – unshapen. The unspoken eloquence flooded out in a muted crescendo, linking all of their thoughts as one. The first question, Selphie reflected later, was "Why?". The second, following not soon after, was "Why?".

Zell's milky face regained a little of its colour. Although his cheeks and eyes were dry, his flushed skin and swollen eyelids betrayed his salty tears. He had to explain to them. He had to.

"We went to the Training Centre – there was a fire…"

"I came to get Squall…" Selphie whispered in consternation. Maybe if she'd got there before Squall…had disappeared…maybe she could have done something…

"Where is Squall?" Zell looked around the ruined room as if for the first time. His glance fell on Selphie's tearstained, terrified face that was only now recovering. "And – what happened?"

"It doesn't – it doesn't matter. You – you explain about…"

_About Quisty. _The unspoken words were heard as if they had been said aloud. "When I got there, I met Seifer." Zell started in a choked, closed voice. It was almost monotone.

"He was real choked up, you know? He said that Quistis was – trapped in there. He didn't say why. She was just injured, by a T-Rexaur, and we had to go in a save her.

We managed to quench a path through the flames and finally reached the small cranny where Quistis was lying. The flames hadn't reached her yet, but the smoke had. Seifer's face went grey. I thought he was going to fall unconscious. I don't know what had happened between them in there, but it sure meant a lot to him. And then we saw her body."

"She was dead. We knew the second we looked at her. We had no time to spare. The flames were advancing ever closer with every second we waited. So we picked her up and carried her out of there. Seifer was controlling the flames. The heat was stifling. We were stumbling, blinded by the smoke. We thought we were going to die. Seifer looked as if he wished he could.

Seifer and I took her straight to the Infirmary. We tried Full-Lifes and Phoenix Downs but she was too far gone for those. So we washed away the blood, ever so gently while Dr. Kadowaki went to tell Cid. It was a living hell in there. Silence, except for Seifer's crying.Quisty's dead body in front of us. And a tiny teddy bear lying forlornly on the floor by the bed.

Cid sent some people to dig a grave for her in the Quad. He was really – I can't say upset. It was so much more than upset. It was something deep inside, you know? Something dead. That can never be revived. 

Seifer took Quistis to the Quad in her coffin along with Cid. I think – he wanted to spend some time alone with- with her. They told me to come and find you. And so I did."

Selphie and Irvine were crying softly now. The sound almost broke Zell's heart. Right now he just wanted to go to his room, lie down in bed and never get up again. Get away from it all. No Rinoa. No Quistis. And now…no Squall?

"Where is Squall?"

"I don't know." Selphie looked down. "I got here, and I found – his gunblade, broken into a million pieces. Griever – the monster we'd defeated was somehow released from his ring – and he attacked me. Irvine arrived, just in time, and saved me."

Griever – Squall – too much! It was too much to think about or talk about. He opened his mouth to say something but all that came out was;

"Quisty's funeral is tomorrow."

With that he turned on his heel and left quietly, the tears falling down his face as he turned away.

Irvine realised that Selphie was still in his arms. He looked down at her. Somehow the dim morning light made her features softer. He eyes were soft in the dimness, and her lips were shining too. Her cheeks? Highlighted with all the shimmering lowness of blushes in the morning sunlight. She was beautiful, he realised. Involuntarily, he reached down with a hand and stroked her soft, shining, brown hair. Her jade green eyes were filled with tears. He was going to remove those tears, every one. An intoxicating blend of scents wafted up form her, mingled together in a beautiful cocktail of violets, daffodils, spring air, summer air, jasmine, ylang ylang, Selphie…

How could he resist her? He was pulled into a whirwind of emotions. Her arms were around his neck, clinging on desperately. She was so frightened, and sweet, and willing…

His hands were tangled in her hair. He didn't want to let go. Maybe, in this mess, the world that was collapsing around them, they could hold onto eachother, something tangible…he increased the passion behind the kiss, losing himself in the utter bliss that enfolded him like angel's wings. He was holding onto her, and she was holding onto him, as if they were the most important things in the world…

"Irvy?"

"Yes, Sefie?"

"Do you love me?"

Irvine looked down at the sincere, beautiful, open face. A tangled web of emotions burst inside him. He held the small, fragile girl close. He wouldn't let anybody hurt her. Because – 

"I do love you, Selphie."

Then their mouths were inexplicably locked again, their eyes closed with eagerness. Her hands were sliding from his neck into his hair, with rising, mounting passion. His remained in her hair, pulling her towards him. He loved her so much – her heady scent was overpowering him now…

In a moment of daring, he placed his hand on her hip. She smiled underneath his lips and snuggled closer into his arms, her hands kneading the sensitive skin by his neck. They were one. They fit perfectly together.

He pulled away suddenly, one of his hands looped loosely around her waist. Her lips were rosy from his last kiss. "Selphie…"

"Mmmm?"

"We love eachother…right?"

"I do Irvy. I love you." She sobbed slightly on the last word. "Everybody is dying or disappearing around us, but in this world and the next Irvy, I love you."

Irvine leant down over Selphie, his dark brown eyes melting into her green ones.

"Marry me, Selphie."

"What do you want me to do?"

His green-blue eyes burned with a fiery heat. He wouldn't let them hurt Rinoa. She was his angel and always would be.

"Nothing, for the moment."

The room was changing around him. The walls were melting away, the room was becoming smaller. Ultimecia and Ellone faded fainter, fainter…the room went black, then flashed red and white, and then the smoke cleared.

He was in a small dungeon room, no more than 5x5 metres. No windows, no door…where was he?

"Squall!"

He whipped around. Next to him, in the small, dank dungeon, was his angel, Rinoa. For an ephemeral second, they stood apart, and then she collapsed into his arms, the tears running down her cheeks at last. He wrapped his arms around her so that she would feel secure in his embrace. As he held her, rocking her slightly, he was filled with a hope and joy that he was finally reunited with her. They would get out of this together.

After…well, it could have been seconds, minutes…he felt his shoulder becoming damp. He pulled away and looked at Rinoa. Her eyes were shining with the tears that she was barely trying to hold back. He knelt down and let her stay safe in his arms. "What's wrong?"

He wiped away the solitary tear from her cheek with his hand. The leather of his jacket squeaked reassuringly against his shoulders. He hugged her close again and placed his lips on her inky black hair. She was warm against his chest. "What's wrong?", he repeated.

"I – I was wondering about our friends back in Balamb. I – I don't want to become a memory."

_I don't want to become a memory._

_ _

Squall had thought those exact same things, once, in Galbadia Garden. Now he understood what Rinoa was going through. "You won't become a memory. You'll live, as an entity, a being, in everyone's hearts that you've touched, even after you've died. But you will never be dead for me, Rin."

"Squall – why?"

"I will never let you die."

Rinoa gazed upwards into the beautiful, sensitive eyes of the man she loved. She let her fingers slip under the leather of his jacket. It felt so blissful just to be with him again. 

"I just feel worried; what if we return and nothing is the way we left it?"

"Trust me, Rin. Our friends will all be there to welcome us when we return. Whenever that may be."

Rinoa felt his strong arms tighten around her waist and knew that he spoke the truth. It had to be the truth.

I know this chapter was awfully short, but review it all the same. Do you want a continue or not??????


	13. The Funeral

# A fated absence

**Disclaimer: yeah, you know…**

Okay, there isn't much to say about this chapter apart from that Quisty's dead, Seifer still doesn't really know the circumstances around her death but had confessed his love to her before she died, Irvine has asked Selphie to marry him and Rinoa and Squall are both under Ultimecia's power, trapped, but together! I think that's it…I haven't forgotten anything, have I?

This chapter is not really carrying on with the story; it mainly focuses on reactions to Quisty's death. The next chapter will continue the story.

The rain made a diaphanous veil over the small, huddled congregation, glowing and effervescing in all the radiance she deserved. It shone softly, illuminated by the gentle rays of peeping sun that strove to be seen behind the silver-lined clouds. Their beams came down from the heavens and wove a golden and silver dome that danced and swayed with the mellifluous, soporific strains of the wind band that played somewhere, carried on the wind. The familiar tune was made melancholy by the seriousness of the situation; it was "Eyes on Me".

The row of bowed figures all trailed, sad and alone, one by one, to pay their last respects. The beautiful, pure body in the coffin paid them no heed. The eyes stared down into her closed ones, and she saw nothing but her own blackness.

The golden sheet of hair spilled over the sculptured marble neck, the phosphorescent cheeks and brow. Her eyelids were closed, a pure, simple white which bore the simple blush of red; the blush that made her almost look alive. Her limbs were balletic, and relaxed; her tense grace finally made tender in death. Her arms lay slack by her sides and the rose that Seifer had laid on her breast the night before was faded, the petals nearly dead.

Irvine bowed his head, the watery sun shining on his slick, neat ponytail. For once it was not unruly. His eyes were lowered. He pulled his fiancé towards him and let his slow tears trickle down into her velvety hair. The band had started to play a slow sheen of a musette. The smell of earth and lilies mingled and the heady scents almost overpowered him. Selphie, snuggled into his arms, whispered, "I wish Quisty was alive." Irvine looked down into the emerald eyes, shining with the tears she was trying to hold back. "We couldn't help her, Selph – she was trapped, and there's nothing more to it. It isn't like – it isn't like she wanted to die"

Selphie looked up into Irvine's face. "Why must happiness always come with pain?" Her lips brushed against his. She felt safe with him. He would be her husband…

"Life isn't fair, Sefie. But we have eachother. Now and always."

The band reached a mournful climax, the violins passionately ringing against the flutes and oboes. The coffin was being lowered into the ground. The scene happened before her eyes in slow motion. The earth was shovelled over the iridescent glass until you could see it no more. She would never see Quisty's face again.

"Always."

_It isn't like she wanted to die?_

_ _

_They don't know. Should I – should I tell them?_

_ _

_I couldn't help hearing. I couldn't help it. I can't leave them – so blind, so –ignorant of what her death really was. Should I show them the letter?_

_No – it would break their hearts. I don't even quite understand it myself. I need to ask Squall things – so many things._

_ _

_Maybe if I hadn't thought I had loved Rinoa – maybe if I'd known where my heart was – Quistis wouldn't be dead. She might be lying down with me, and waking up with me, every morning, every day for the rest of my life. She might have been mine. We might have been – happy._

_ _

_Rinoa! Why did you delude me? Why did I superficially fall for those wide, dark eyes and raven tresses?_

_ _

_Listen to me. I sound like a bad poet. _

_ _

_But it's true. All of it._

_ _

_Rinoa. This is all your fault._

_ _

The night closed in upon him like a suffocating blanket. He did not cry; his tears were ended. He had no more left to give. And what were tears. They couldn't bring her back to life. They renewed nothing. 

Sure, Instructor Trepe. Yo, Instructor Trepe. Had she ever noticed him? Really? Apart from the being the rowdy, impulsive student who was a coward at heart? She had never really looked beneath all the tattoos, the spiky blonde hair. And now she was gone. He would never get the chance to see her, ever again. Never hear her bubbly laugh, the way she shook her head sternly when she was displeased, the cute way she fiddled with her hands when she was nervous. All the things…

His heart had nearly stopped when he'd seen the lifeless body. And Seifer, the conventional lover, watering her grave with his tears. Oh, what a waste! Of a young innocent life! Why did she have to die? And leave, him, all alone?

The young SeeD crawled between the thin sheets of his bed. He flicked a small switch by his bed. A muffled, muted click sounded, followed by a tiny whisper of a hiss. Zell did not hear the tiny, ominous sound.

He was already fast asleep, his nightmares creeping into his dreams and killing them, one by one.

Sorry, V.short but this was meant to be a sort ofintermittent chapter that just describes their feelings on Quisty's death.

Stay tuned for the next chapter!!!!

Review!


	14. Omega Weapon returns...

**Disclaimer: For heaven's sake, do I have to go through this for every chapter?!**

I know this story is quite long and it jumps around a lot, but I'm very inexperienced and when I want to write something, I just write it, no matter if it doesn't seem fluent! So just bear with me and review my story…please…

# What are we going to do?

**This takes place three days after the end of the last chapter.**

His face was thinner now, and somehow more haggard, though not entirely in a physical way; his hair was duller, the locks of hair over his forehead hanging slacker, more limp. He was trying not to show it; she knew that, but every day the fatigue and hunger set in more and more. They were both wasting away. What was the point of it all? Ultimecia captured them both, just to let them starve to death? That couldn't be it. She just wanted them weak enough – to overpower them.

They'd been in this dank, dark cell for the last three days. A dank, dark cell; something that sounded like it had come out of a fairytale about dungeons and dragons. However, she wasn't so sure that this time there would be a happy ending. They had nothing to eat, only stale bread and tepid water once a day, nothing to sleep on, except for the cold, unfeeling stone floor. 

It was night time now, she was guessing. She shifted her position and snuggled closer to Squall. He was the only warm thing in this cold, cold room; they belonged together; their forms fit perfectly against eachother, melded into one. She buried her face in the crook of his neck and slid her arms around his neck. She loved him; more than anything else in the world. With a faint sense of realisation, she found herself thinking that she would die for him, if need be. 

As the minutes passed, she found her thoughts wandering back to her friends in Balamb. Would they forget her, if she never returned? Would they be the same? Would they all be ready, and waiting to welcome them? Zell, Irvine, Quisty? And – Seifer? Her brow minutely wrinkled as she thought of the man she'd once shared her life with. That summer – that fated fling. Had he been in love with her? She had never been – was it in love? She had felt things, strange, unfelt feelings, but they could not have been love. Love was what she was feeling for her brave, caring knight, the knight who was protecting her with his life, even though his own life was fading away. Slowly.

A tiny chink of dim light fell across the dark floor. Rinoa looked up, quickly. The wall was – melting away? Scared, apprehensive, she shook Squall's shoulder gently. He murmured something and his eyelids fluttered open. They widened, and he sat up, drawing Rinoa protectively to his side. "What – is it?". A strange, ringing noise filled the room. The closest thing he could ever remember to the noise was the sound of the resonating rocks, when they had excavated Ultima Weapon. He reached automatically for his gunblade, only to find his empty pocket. Of course. The Lionheart had been destroyed when he had been captured. They both lay there, huddled, mesmerized…

…as the large, familiar, ominous shadow darkened the future, present, and past…

"How're you holding up?"

Selphie slid softly into the seat opposite Zell in the cafeteria. The past few days had been hell for them both. Only now were they beginning to regain something of their former selves. Quistis' death had affected them deeply, and what made it worse was that nobody knew why she had died. The bubble of noise in the cafeteria was the same as always. Perhaps things would get back to normal. Eventually. She had Irvine, didn't she? And she would have him forever…

"I – I don't know." Zell said truthfully. He didn't know. There were so many things…

"Were you in love with her?"

Selphie blurted out the words, turning a bright crimson as the words escaped her lips. She looked down and bit her lip. She hadn't meant to say it out loud…so blunt, so tactless…

"With Quisty?"

Selphie nodded slightly and gestured with her hands as if to say "Of course."

"I'm not sure." And it was the truth. Had he really been in love with her? Or had the feelings of friendship just become so strong that the barrier between friendship and love had been overcome? He didn't know. And now he never would. "I'm not sure," he repeated softly.

"I just wanted you to know – Zell – if you ever needed to talk…" the brunette bowed her head slightly, ashamed of herself. How could she expect his feelings to be overcome just by talking? She could never understand what he was going through, never, even though she was going through it herself. You couldn't get inside people like that. It was – their mind. Would he misunderstand…

"I'd like that." Zell whispered, smiling crookedly and placing his warm hand on top of hers. "And by the way…"

His smile blossomed now, genuine and beautiful in its simplicity.

"Congratulations. I hope you and Irvine will be very happy together."

"What is it?"

Rinoa scrambled to her feet and prepared her Limit Break magic. She was going to need it if they were even going to have a chance in battle. Without the Lionheart…

"What are you doing?"

"We – we'll have to fight…"

Squall found that he was trembling. He'd always tried to protect her. And now, it was just the two of them. If she was hurt…

The shadow emerged from behind the melting wall, the grotesque head, the dreadful weapon, the rearing, bucking legs and body…

Omega Weapon…the monster they had never managed to defeat…

He was in a daze…he got up quickly – too quickly – the blood rushed to his head and stars winked before his eyes…

"Let me handle this…"

He wouldn't let Rinoa get hurt – he wouldn't! But she was already up, junctioned and ready…

The next few minutes passed in a misty haze. He was hitting the monster as hard as he could with magic, but he was weakening…weakening…

Healing, hitting, the rhythm was quickening, maybe – maybe they could do this together?

The air around them was darkening. The monster was getting weaker, he could tell. But as the stars in the air around them glistened maliciously, the meteors and comets hurtled and whisked around them. The Terra Break. The Ultimate…

He was weak, down, but not dead. He heard a cry beside him, a soft scream and gasp. He turned blindly towards her and caught her falling body in his arms as the monster exploded in smithereens of blinding light. 

"Rinoa…"

I know, I know, that chapter was really crap…but flame me if you want to, just please please review!! I only got two reviews for my last chapter…and I am really depressed…does this story suck? 


	15. Don't die on me!

****I really need reviews! If I don't get more than eight reviews for this chapter, there will be no continue at all! You have been warned!****

**Disclaimer: I wish I owned these characters but I don't. The story is mine, tho."

# Don't die on me.

"NOT RINOA!"

The words exploded from Squall's mouth as he caught her falling body in his arms before it hit the floor. Quickly he whipped a Phoenix Down from his pocket and poured the healing liquid over her. It missed. A shower of sparks fell and settled by his feet. He tried another, and another. Phoenix Downs never missed. Ever.

"BITCH! YOU COWARDLY, REPULSIVE BITCH!" Squall's eyes were blazing. His hair was dishevelled and his eyes were wild. Something was possessing him. He couldn't even hear what he was saying; he was shaking with fear, anger, fury, and desolation. "Not Rinoa, you might have done better to rip my heart out between my ribs – how dare you…" This was so unlike him, this uncontrolled side of himself he had never seen. These weren't even his words, but he couldn't stop them coming out of his mouth. 

"What was the point of even fucking bringing her here? To destroy me? What purpose does that have? You were defeated, defeated, isn't that enough for you?! Just kill me, I don't care! Kill me with all the pain and violence and anger you like – I don't care…"

His words were resounding off the walls. The silence met his outburst. "I know you can hear me, you bitch! And your – your hollow eyes minion, the girl who used to be my SIS! Do you ENJOY taking everything I love and know away from me? What do you want from me? What the hell do you want from me? Not Rinoa, what was the fucking POINT of it all? What a waste! What a God-damned, hypocritical waste, you couldn't even let me – let – you didn't even give us a…"

The burning lump in his throat overcame him as the heat in his body came to the surface, blazing, furious. "Come out here and talk to me, SORCERESS! Come on! The great ULTIMECIA…" He spat out the words as the tears dashed fiercely from his eyes. He buried his hand in her silky dark hair and closed his eyes. God, why was this even happening? And why to him?

"She isn't dead."

Squall looked up quickly. She was there, the Sorceress, her lips curved in that horrible, smug, easy smile of hers. Her accent was spicy, rich, but tainted with malicious intent and evil. "Do you want to see her wake?"

Squall was sure there was something behind this, but he had to see her – alive again. He had to. He stroked her cold, porcelain cheek and nodded ever so slightly in consent.

Sparks were appearing around him in the air – gathering – gathering…a soft cluster of stars like a comet brushed against his cheek, cool, soothing – the stars formed a pearl-studded net and gathered around Rinoa. He fell back, forced back, as her body was lifted up, gently. Her eyes were fluttering open, growing wide with realisation and recognition – she was being lifted higher and higher – 

A slam, and she had been hurled against the wall. Squall jumped to his feet in anger. She was crumpled now, her delicate frame trembling and shaking, the crimson blood marring her perfect skin. The tears of fear and desperation were streaming down her cheeks. Almost before he had a chance to react, she was being dragged u0p by an invisible force field, jerked cruelly to her feet. She buckled, her knees weak, but was pulled up again and pinned against the wall. A sharp, lethal ice blade materialised at her throat. Even if she breathed, she was in danger of being injured by the carefully positioned knife-like icicle.

Squall found that he could not move. This was the utmost torture – seeing Rinoa scared and in pain, and being able to do nothing to help her.

"Extermination Plan A." Remarked Ultimecia calmly. "Use of the latent Sorceress soul to power the ultimate wave of monsters."

## Latent Sorceress…

_ _

Squall's eyes grew wide as he realised what Ultimecia meant. His large, dilated green irises locked onto Rinoa's dark ones. The panic was electric between them.

The silence was heavy, charged. He could hear Rinoa's quiet, terrified sobbing breaths. He could do nothing to help her.

## Someone come help us!

_ _

_Please…_

_ _

_ _

"We need to decide what we're going to do."

Irvine's voice was shaky, but determined. He'd called an assembly on the bridge – Zell, Seifer, Selphie and himself. Usually it would have been Quistis taking the lead but – 

But she was dead.

Irvine regained his self control and continued. 

"We need to find Squall and Rinoa. They could be in great danger. Selphie – was attacked by Griever, released by Squall's ring. It was in his dormitory, next to his broken Lionheart. The only person on earth strong enough to release the Ultimate GF and break the Lionheart – is Ultimecia."

"I don't know how, and I don't know why, but Ultimecia's back. She has Squall and Rinoa. And they're not strong enough to fight her on their own."

Zell spoke up, his eyes cloudy with worry.

"We need to go to Esthar – Doctor Odine will tell us what to do. He can – he can tell us how to get to Ultimecia's time. If she has stayed in the same time."

There was a mutual consent understood between the group. The night was early, and the dusky twilight fell upon their faces, starlit from the heavens. When Irvine spoke again, his voice was husky.

"We'll go tomorrow. I hope we're not…"

He didn't finish his sentence, but everybody knew what he was thinking.

_I hope we're not too late._

## I have to tell them. I have to!

_ _

_I've put it off too long. Blinded by stupid thoughts. I did the wrong thing in my life before. I can't do it again._

_ _

_The letter was addressed to all of us, all of us! Why am I making her whole death a lie?_

_ _

_I have to tell someone._

_ _

_Who will understand?_

_ _

_This is tearing me up inside…she would have wanted everybody to know. I can't keep them in the dark any longer._

_ _

_I'm going to tell someone._

_ _

_I'm going to find out the truth._

_ _

_ _

The watery sunlight from outside fell on her face, bringing out the dark blond highlights in her gleaming chestnut tresses. She looked beautiful when she was asleep. The white sheets were tangled around her waist; her bare arms folded underneath her head, her creamy skin catching the light. Her features were relaxed, the softest of rosy blushes on her cheeks, her eyelids shimmering softly in the morning dawn. He leant over, his own chestnut hair falling at either sides of his face and kissed the curve of her neck to her shoulders. She murmured softly and snuggled close to him in the narrow bed. He nuzzled her neck and kissed her. He sensed she was smiling underneath his lips as her caressed her cool cheek. He pulled away top find her emerald eyes staring directly into his. "Morning, sunshine." He whispered softly.

"Morning, Irvy. Just think of it! We're engaged!"

"I know. I didn't know I could love one person so much…"

He lay back down on the bed and pulled her gently towards him so that her head was resting on his chest, the silky hair fanning out around her face.

"I'm so worried about Squall and Rinoa…"

"They'll come back…" said Selphie uncertainly, her eyes crinkling slightly. "They _have _to come back…" she repeated fiercely. "I don't want a memory of them. I want to see them, talk to them, hear their voices. It's all happened so fast…how could they just go? How could Quistis just – just die like that? Why?"

The quiet click of the door opening roused them both. The tall, blonde male stepped in, trying desperately to stop the tears dashing from his set, determined eyes. He held out, wordlessly a piece of creamy paper, wrinkled and well-thumbed, but readable.

As Irvine scanned the piece of paper, the bewilderment, horror and shock slowly set into his features. After he had finished the letter, he kept on staring at it, his eyes glazed over with the suddenness, the shock of it all. After a long, long pause, Irvine looked up again, silently.

An electric shock passed between them. Seifer raised his tear-dashed eyes to Irvine's and said calmly;

"Well, cowboy. What do you propose we do now?"

****Please review, otherwise u're not getting another part outta me!***


	16. Abrupt Endings

# Abrupt endings

**I really appreciate all the reviews and stuff – so keep 'em coming! I'm sorry for killing Quistis but without that I don't really have a story do I?! Lol, enjoy the story!**

It was touching upon dusk now. Selphie and Zell were piloting Garden towards Esthar – it was a long, arduous journey and was likely to take them a few more nights.

His head was swimming. The moonlight refracted off the glass windows and running water in the polished halls of Balamb Garden, making his head feel light, yet heavy and painful. He lifted the bottle to his mouth and drank more of the clear, intoxicating liquid. He knew it was wrong – but did anything really matter anymore? He was viewing the world through a red, honeyed haze; the sheen penetrated his eyes and pupils, making them dilate. He was breathing heavily now. He couldn't believe it. He just couldn't believe it.

Most of the events that had happened that morning were hazy now, washed away with the wine, but one thing stuck out; Quistis had killed herself. And they wouldn't know the truth until they found Squall and asked him what the hell had happened. Irvine's feet were crossing over eachother now, but he paid no attention. The halls were deserted; nobody would see him. He leered at the stone gargoyle sitting by the lucid fountain. It had no right to look so melancholy. It had no idea what true melancholy was.

All the pieces of his life were falling away around him. Who was he, really? The liquid became more alluring, more intoxicating, with every sip. It welled over him, quenching his thirst. He was forgetting everything, everybody. Even the halls were becoming blurred around him, dancing…he swayed slightly to one side, and then the other, and then righted himself. The floor tilted crazily beneath his feet. He felt light, free, dizzy, bubble-headed. Even the misery and despair was beginning to leave him – he felt crazy, amazing, able to do anything…

He felt superhuman light-headedness possess him.He felt almost like floating, dancing, flying….and in those few seconds, he started to really believe he could…

He was turning into one of the narrow marbled aisles branching off the deserted corridor. He wasn't sure which one. After all, weren't they all the same? He sipped a little more of the cool, metallic liquid, letting it engrave an icy trajectory in the back of his gullet. He swayed into the dimly lit room at the end of the corridor and stopped.

The rows of books sharpened, blurred, and returned to their original state in front of his hallucinating eyes. There was a shape – a perfectly formed one – kneeling on the floor in front of one of the mahogany, gold-trimmed bookshelves. He hardly knew what he was doing or why, but within a few seconds he had knelt down beside her. She lifted her face to him and smiled, pushing back the sleek curtains of black hair that framed her face. Her high cheekbones complemented her eyes – striking, piercing, violet-blue eyes, fringed by dark, long, thick lashes. She was smiling uncertainly, nervously, shyly, but inside her heart was doing a double-take. The cowboy himself – she had never thought he would notice her, just a library girl at Garden…

Irvine suddenly felt as though he was floating away, away from his body. The inebriation of it all was making him lose control of his actions – but it felt good, so good…to be free. Not to have to worry about any of them, not Zell, not Seifer, not any of them. Not Quisty. He was even forgetting who they were. He was living for the moment and it felt wonderful. Incredible.

The girl kneeling in front of him turned her head away demurely. In fact, she was a little apprehensive – he seemed a little tipsy to her. But then, another voice inside her told her, "_This is your chance, your big chance. So, he's a little drunk. Big deal. Have a little fun!"_

_ _

Before she even had a chance to look back into his face again, he had tugged off his ponytail ring, letting the chestnut hair fall silently to his shoulders. She watched him, wordlessly. Did he – really want to – 

She stood up and a light sparkled in her eyes. Irvine found himself laughing – a high pitched laugh. Anything could happen now. He didn't even know what he was doing. He clasped her hand in his and led her in a pirouette. She giggled as he pulled her to him in a fast – paced disco-style dance. "Isn't it wild?" He whispered into her ear. Intoxicating fumes emanated from his words, but she didn't care. She was in the arms of the handsome cowboy she'd always wanted. "Doesn't it make you feel free?" He continued.

Before she had time to think over what she was doing, she was clasping his face in her hands, kissing the warm, sensitive mouth, tasting the alcohol. It made her feel light-headed. Irvine pulled away from the kiss, his eyes glazed yet alive.

Wordlessly, he drew her roughly to his side and led her to his dormitory.

He remembered no more after that.

The ragged, terrified breathing filled his mind and soul. It was agony to listen to.

"Let her go!" He screamed unreservedly. He tried to move towards her but found that he couldn't. The icicle shivered at Rinoa's throat and fell still.

"Let the process start." Hissed Ultimecia to the hollow, trailing minion that had once been Ellone. A thin, vaporous mist began to rise and curl, licking the floor and springing up around Rinoa. Ellone drifted slowly, ominously towards Rinoa and clasped a heavy steel bracelet tightly around one of her slender wrists. Beads of sweat broke out on Rinoa's pale forehead. Her damp hair was falling into her petrified eyes. A small cluster of electric blue sparks, miniature lightnings, was beginning to sparkle and crackle around the handcuff. Rinoa winced and cried out on pain. Squall wrenched and strained at the invisible force that was holding him back, but it was too strong for him. Worst of all was the cold, calculating expression on Ultimecia's face as she watched Rinoa's face contort in pain.

"Squall!" She was gasping, but her words were worn to shreds. "I love you…"

Those words sounded so final, so horrible…

"Angel! Don't give up!"

But Rinoa was past words, her eyes hollow, horrified glassy marbles, her whole slender frame trembling…

Squall instinctively felt for his ring. He always held it when he was scared, or despairing. But when he needed it most, it failed him. His ring was no longer around his neck. Its cool warmth could not reassure him now. He tried to visualise it, holding it in his mind. The inscription, Griever. The small etching of the legendary GF they had defeated. And the tiny words, engraved in gold, just visible beneath the etching…

Something was telling Squall the words were important, but he didn't know why…what were they? What were they?

Rinoa's cries were becoming more and more audible in the background. His heart felt as if it was going to split in two with the horror of it all. And then it came to him. He was breathless, hopeful, as he half sobbed, half gasped the words…

"_Fithos Lusec, Wecos, Vinosec…"_

_ _

The world suddenly went silent around him. The electric charges stopped. 

A hollow rumbling filled the air.

And then, with an enormous explosion of rocks, sparks, and hot ashes, the earth began to split and shake brutally beneath them…he was falling, and falling, and he couldn't seem to stop falling…he felt someone warm, someone alive brush against him, beside him, and he grasped the trembling white hand, felt the fabric of the blue dress…darkness, intermittently lit up with flashes of red, destructive light, a deep ravine, and a horrendous, harsh scream from somewhere deep below, or above, they were the same thing…

They were together, but where were they going?

"You can manage, Zell?"

It had been a long, long night of navigations and stars, and finally they were on a straight course to Esthar City. Selphie was tired and fatigued, but she tried not to show it. Irvine would make her feel better. He always did.

"Sure thing, Sefie. You go down and see how the others are getting on. Tell them we're bound for Odine's Lab."

"Sure…"

Selphie raked a slim hand through her shiny, bouncy brown hair as she descended from the bridge and headed down the marble corridors towards Irvine's dormitory. She was so excited; _he _would be so excited when she told him! She couldn't wait. Something was finally going right in her life. And she had a person to share it with…

She knocked coyly on the door of Irvine's dormitory. "Irv?"

She pushed open the door, trying her best to look coy and alluring. "I…"

She stopped in her tracks, rooted to the spot. The room smelt strongly of alcohol. The sharp stench stung her nostrils and made her eyes water. But that wasn't the worst.

The white sheets of the bed were rumpled. Bare, creamy skin, bronzed skin…Irvine lay, face down underneath the sheets, his bronzed arms around – around the girl from the library. The girl had her head in the crook of his neck, her lips resting on his shoulder blade. Her arms were protectively wrapped around him. The morning sun flooded the room, making them look pure and loving. It should have been a beautiful image. But to her, it was nothing but dirty.

"Irvine?" The tears pricked her eyes as she realised, with a bitter, sinking feeling that they must have spent the night together. How _could_ he – she'd thought he was the _one…the one…she was supposed to marry him! And he'd taken her love, and her trust, and shattered it into a million pieces before her very eyes. She had been in __love – no, she still was. Whatever happened, she couldn't stop loving him. But right now all she was feeling was hurt and sorrow. Wasn't she good enough? The girl in the bed was beautiful – much more beautiful than her, she realised. How could she have ever thought that Irvine would really want her?_

Trembling, the tears partly blurring her vision, she advanced towards the bed, trying her hardest not to wake him. She didn't know how she would face him if he woke up. She reached out a slim hand towards his golden brown one, and slid her engagement ring onto his fourth finger. She would no longer be needing it.

Unable to fight the howl of misery that was building up inside her at the horror and shock of it all any longer, she turned and fled the room.

Dr. Kadowaki looked up as the small brunette dashed into the infirmary, looking dishevelled, discomposed. She was obviously upset because of Quistis, Dr. Kadowaki assumed, smiling encouragingly at her. 

"Ah, Selphie! How's he do…"

"No time for that." Selphie answered shortly. She sat down on the chair next to the window. The cool breeze played on her cheek. In her mind there was a burning certainty that she should do what she was about to do, but in her mind, she was pleading, praying for Irvine to come and stop her before she did it…

"Selphie? Is everything all right? Do you need advice on your…"

"Don't make this any harder…" Selphie whispered, half to herself. She gathered up all her resolve, and wiped the tears fiercely from her eyes before raising her head determinedly to stare the doctor straight in the eyes.

"Do you know a good place I could go to for an abortion?"

How was it? If you've read this far you must have an opinion, so please review!!! No continue unless I get enough reviews…


	17. Free at Last

# Free at last

**Sorry this part took so long ppl but I have soooo much music practice and stuff 2 do…**

**And b4 any of you ask, no, none of these characters belong 2 me!!!***

"_Rinoa! Rinoa!"_

_ _

Somewhere, into the dreamy state of half-consciousness that hovered above her, a diaphanous veil of silence and colour, the words penetrated. She tried to tell them to go away, she wanted to revert to that sleepy slumber that was so comfortable. She couldn't move…she didn't want to move…she wasn't even properly awake…the ground felt soft and relaxing beneath her back, and the air cool against her cheek.

_"Rinny! Angel!"_

_ _

Angel? Was she dead? If this was death, it wasn't so bad. No pain, no worries, just half-intermittent bliss, floating, unaware, unable to…

Death…Ultimecia? Ultimecia was dead, that was one thing she was sure of. Just before she had – she wasn't quite sure what had happened, but the last thing she could remember seeing was a large, looming black shape, swallowing the erect, tense figure into an eternity of darkness, before the shape dwindled and died, the last wisps of shadow plummeting into a cavernous abyss of lava that had opened up, split in mid-air…

Terror…she'd been terrified, she remembered that. But she had also felt love, love for…

Squall! She tried to speak, but the heavy dreamy state was thick over her mouth and eyes, suffocating. She could feel hands gripping her shoulders, shaking her gently. Her hair brushed against her shoulders, her senses awakening, stimulated by the simple movement.

_"Rinoa! Wake up! Wake…_wake up, wake up…"

The voice was much clearer now, closer to reality, closer to home than she'd ever felt before. She opened her dark, liquid chocolate eyes and stared out beneath the dark, dew-tipped lashes into Squall's emerald-sapphire ones, set into that ivory face. His cheeks were flushed, dewy in the watery light, studded with the seed-pearls of tears, his face silvery and beautiful.

She sat up and noticed for the first time that they were in the flower field, the cerulean sky looking fondly down on the masses of coloured, sanguine flowers, meshed together in every hint and hue, wreathed in the wisps of silver mist that still lingered from the dawn.

"What happened?" She brushed the damp hair away from her face and found that her hands came away streaked with a little blood.

"Squall?! Am I bleeding?"

"Only a few shallow cuts. It isn't serious. I was – was beginning to think you weren't going to wake up. I'm so glad you're all right. You're all right…"

Rinoa smiled wryly and stood up, brushing the grass and petals from her azure-blue dress. She swayed a little, still slightly dizzy from the loss of blood, and righted herself.

"Guess maybe now I'll have a scar to match yours."

She looked around her, at the masses of flowers extending far away towards the horizon. "Squall…are we in compressed time?"

"I'm not sure quite what happened. I think – we've done it once before…we have to think where we want to go. But together."

"Ultimecia's dead." Rinoa blurted out the words, hurriedly, quickly. "She's gone, Squall."

"I know. Griever's incantation fired upon herself. I don't think we'll ever really, fully understand." A cloud came over Squall's sapphire-emerald eyes. "But what about Ellone?"

Rinoa thought for a while, a thoughtful expression fleeting across her lovely features. "When I was in Ultimecia's power – you know, in space – when the power was broken, I returned to my original state…

So Ellone, with Ultimecia's death, would have returned to her favourite place in the world. She'll be free."

Wordlessly, Squall took Rinoa's hand. "We're going back, Rinny. Back to Zell, Irvine, Seifer, Selphie…" A momentary shadow passed into his eyes, making his expression unreadable. "And Quistis."

She placed her golden hand in his. She felt deliciously warm, and complete. The petals and feathers were swept up in a balletic arc around their slender forms, swept gracefully by the wind, faster and faster…a place cleared for them in the sky, and the sun shone through down onto them clearer than ever. The movement of the petals and the light of the sun made a music more beautiful to them than it could be to anyone else, and in that radiant crescendo, their thoughts and concentrations merged into one another and every atom of their being was swept up along with them, entwined inexplicably with the curtains and columns of flowers.

In that one second, they were gone.

The door slammed as Selphie left Irvine's dormitory. He awoke seconds later.

"Mmmm…"

Irvine shifted uncomfortably in his bed. There was a fuzzy, throbbing feeling in his head which he didn't like one bit. _Boy, I must have been really boozed…_

He turned sideways, expecting to see Selphie's sunny face and angelic features resting on the pillow beside him. But instead…the black hair, the dark lashes which rested on her cheeks…no…

With a horrible sinking feeling, Irvine stared at the slender figure beside him in the narrow bed. She was beautiful, but Sefie outshone her like the sun.Oh, god…what had he done…

It was all coming back to him now – the way she had seductively enticed him, he had been so drunk he hardly knew where he was…her hands, wandering over his body…the body that was meant for Selphie's touch, Selphie alone! 

He could feel a cool weight on his index finger, one that hadn't been there before. He sat up in bed and examined his hand. Selphie's ring? Her engagement ring!!

Irvine took one look at the rumpled doormat and realised what must have happened. He scrambled out of bed and belted his nightrobe snugly around his waist before stumbling, tripping over himself in his rush to catch Selphie – before it was too late.

Dr. Kadowaki's face barely had time to register surprise and shock before Irvine burst into the Infirmary, breathless, panting. He turned to Selphie, his eyes half-crazed, half melancholy, with a primal fear and longing. She returned his gaze unblinkingly, coldly, registering no emotion, although the tears were pricking behind her eyelids. But somewhere inside of her, she was thanking Irvine for coming before it was too late…

Dr. Kadowaki took one look at the two of them and backed silently out of the room. They were alone. Selphie's composure faltered for a second, but she regained it momentarily.

"There isn't very much to say." She whispered, her emerald eyes piercing to the depths of his soul.

"Selphie – listen to me…" He was pleading with her. That made her more furious.

"No, damn it! Irvine, you said you loved me, and I trusted you! You've taken my heart and ripped it into a million pieces. I thought you were the ONE. Did all our romantic moments, those times that I said I loved you, did that mean nothing to you?" Her voice lowered to barely a whisper. "Was I not good enough?"

The thought wrenched at his heart. "No, Selphie! Look – I was drunk – I didn't know what I was doing – look Sefie, there's something I have to tell you!"

"What, Irvine? That you've stopped loving me? Cos I sure haven't stopped loving you!" As soon as the words came out of her mouth her cheeks flushed crimson. She looked down. She did still love him. Maybe – maybe he deserved another chance…

Maybe their child deserved another chance.

She opened her mouth and their two comments came out at the same time.

"I'm going to have our baby!"/ "Quistis killed herself…"

The two faces registered very different emotions at the two comments. One was shocked and radiant; the other shocked and devastated.

Irvine broke the silence, his voice husky and choked with suppressed emotion.

"Where do we go from here, sunny Sefie?"

Review please! I know this part sucked! But the next part **could** be the last and I won't be having any continuation if there aren't enough reviews – flames or whatever, I want your opinion! You've read this far; you must have a view, so come on, share it with me! I did write it after all…


	18. THE END...

The end 

**Here it is! The long awaited ending to my story! Read, and review…I'm almost at my target of one hundred reviews for this story!*

Also, please feel free to email me personally if you'd like to talk; I'd love to meet some other FF8 fans!

It felt as if a bond had snapped between her and reality; those horrible, ligamented ties that had held her at the boundaries or heaven, at the gates of hell had broken, leaving her floating, blissful, yet unaware of her surroundings. She felt as if she were floating on a cloud, but a cloud of water, hopes, fire and dreams. She didn't feel dead; she was dead, but she no longer felt it. She opened her eyes.

A beautiful woman was standing before her, wreathed in mist. Her golden hair fanned out in a silken aureole about her pale, ivory face. The smallest of rosy blushes tinted her cheeks and her lips were reminiscent of a punnet of berries. She was dressed in a trailing, velvet and silk robe in colours that she had never seen before; new colours, colours that didn't have a name. She was a young woman, but her green and violet eyes held infinite wisdom. She didn't say anything, but the lower level of her consciousness picked up who she was.

_You're Hyne…_she thought the words, but here, thinking was the same as speaking. The woman's response flowed back into her mind like melted honey.

_The spell is broken._

_ _

_I don't understand…_

_ _

The spell…she hadn't wanted to die, not really. But by the time she'd decided, it had been too late…love could not overcome death, not even in heaven. And if this was heaven…in those last few moments, when her eyes were closing for the last time, she had felt – forced almost…

_Ultimecia's dead, Quistis._

_ _

_You're free now._

_ _

_Free…to return._

_ _

_ _

Rinoa opened her eyes and found herself still clinging to Squall's neck. He gently disentangled her arms and looked around at the small patches of dense forest, the sun shining over the filled crater, the idyllic setting, the golden beach – the Acauld Plains. "We're home, Rinny" he whispered. 

Hand in hand, the two walked towards their school and home, their place to eat, their place to sleep, their home. 

They were going to see their friends again! Rinoa could hardly keep the elation out of her tired mind as the walked slowly but surely towards the building they loved. It was like they were returning to family.

Everything would be alright now. 

They knew it.

_Where am I?_

_ _

_Last night – its all a blur. The handsome cowboy came up to me…we…he…_

_ _

_I'm in his bed._

_ _

_The sunlight's pouring in on me, I'm between his sheets. So why do I feel so empty?_

_ _

_It doesn't feel right. I shouldn't have…_

_ _

_Where is he? He's…gone?_

_ _

_Somewhere. It's for the best. My heart wasn't with him, not really. I – I don't know what I was thinking._

_ _

_When the man I really love isn't him. _

_ _

_I'm kinda glad he isn't right here, right now. Telling him this – after we slept together – to his face would be too hard._

_ _

_I'll just go._

_ _

_It's for the best._

_ _

_He will find happiness with someone else – someone who loves him back._

_ _

_I'm sorry, Irvine._

"Why don't we…just take it from here?"

Irvine whispered it softly, the tears shining in his caramelised brown eyes. He couldn't face losing Selphie, on top of the rest of his depression. He gazed at her imploringly.

She looked at him. His hair was dishevelled, his cheeks flushed, his eyes warm and pleading; and she utterly loved him. She couldn't get away from that. And she never would. She wanted to see Irvine in her child; she wanted to see them merged into one.

She smiled nervously, tentatively and reached out her hand. It was trembling slightly as she extended it. Irvine looked at her hand, then the smile, and then her eyes. Never taking his eyes off hers, he reached out a bronzed hand and covered her small, slender fingers with his. Then – all at once – Selphie was in his arms, her face pressed against his chest, hugging him and hugging him as if she never wanted to let go. Gently, he disengaged her grasp.

"Come on", he whispered gently. "My room."

Selphie choked back her sob and placed a warm hand on her stomach. Her child – and his.

They walked out of the infirmary together, nearly colliding into two young students.

"I'm sorry, I'm truly sorry…" Selphie began, helping the young woman up. Then she was staring, and staring, the tears all rushing back to her. "Why – Rinny! And SQUALL!"

Squall wordlessly accepted her elated embrace, the reliefand exhaustion mingling on his face. He, Rinoa, Selphie and Irvine shared euphoric reuniting, their faces telling more than their words.

"Squall – Rinny? What happened? We thought – we all thought – you were…"

"I'll tell you about it in the morning…" He was surprised at how haggard his own voice sounded.

His arm was draped protectively around Rinoa. He wanted nothing more than to sleep, and sleep, and to wash the horrible ordeal from the surface of his memory. But, of course, it had gone much deeper than the surface…

And there was something he had to do first.

He gulped, swallowed, and brushed the faint mistiness from his eyes.

"Where's Quistis? I – need to talk to her."

One look at Irvine's face and he felt his body crumble from inside.

He was talking to Quistis, but not in the way he'd imagined. After explanations after explanations, he'd finally understood. The sorrow blotting out his joy at seeing all his friends again. He was mortified that he'd left her without even saying goodbye. That the last she would feel of him was the palm of his hand as he pushed her to the floor. Two tears formed on his eyelashes and dropped, wasted to the ground beside Quistis' grave. It sank into the earth. Even the earth wouldn't accept his tears.

He would never forget the look on Seifer's face. He'd shown him the letter, and all had become horribly, horribly clear. He'd tried to shy away from it, he'd tried to – but despite their sympathetic faces and comforting words, the words that told him the letter didn't mean what it meant – they all knew the horrible truth, that he, and he alone was responsible for the death – no, the suicide of Quistis Trepe.

Seifer had tried to console him – he was surprised, and shocked, and moved beyond words, that Seifer, of all people, rather than avenging his love's death, would comfort the man who killed her. But Seifer stood by his view that Quistis hadn't wanted to die when he came to her; he'd changed all that. Quistis had died while waiting for help. In the flames. The all, consuming, terrible flames.

He stroked the damp earth above Quistis' grave. His fingers came away coated with soil. "It should be me, lying there, Quisty…" he whispered under his breath. "You weren't unloved – Seifer loved you. And – I loved you. I just never had the strength to show it to you – in that way. You had to understand – that my love couldn't extend beyond friendship – but it was love all the same. You always knew – in your heart of hearts – that I would have done anything for you. I was just too caught up in my self-vanity to show it.

You're in the eternal garden, now, Quistis. The garden where you can blossom, and grow – not only in our hearts, but in heaven as well. You're heading there, Quistis. Taking the beauty and purity of your life with you."

Something Quistis had said to him, a long time ago at Timber, floated into his mind. As he rose to leave, he looked back at the strangely misty, twinkling grave for the last time.

"Garden rule number 7:8, Quisty." He murmured under pearly veils of tears. "Head for the nearest Garden."

And on the Alcuald Plains, under the wreaths of silver mist, under stars, and the ethereal light of the broken spell, Quistis Trepe came searching for Seifer Almasy, following the route that Hyne had given her.

THE END

Finito…..

Did you like it? Please review this chapter! If I get enough reviews, I might be tempted to write a short epilogue….or even a sequel!

Yours truly in fanfiction,

Cosmic.

I really enjoyed writing this; if anyone has any personal comments to make or would simply like to meet another ff8 fan, feel free to email me! I hope ppl out there enjoyed my story as much as I loved writing it.


	19. Epilogue...

EPILOGUE 

**kk, the story is officially over, so if you're happy with where I left it, you don't need to read this (although I'd really rather you did, so you can review it!!! J )**

Epilogue…The lost generations. 

*

The swirling, pink tinged clouds peaked and dropped, in any and every way imaginable, even possible. It was impossible; but aesthetic. It was not disputed; it simply was. It had wings, tiny, golden wisps of cloud fluttering at its sides, shining against the silver and gold, iridescent azure of the endless sky above. The eyes looked upwards into the hazy distance, and had the effervescent feeling of looking down, rather than looking up.

The woman rose, and stood regally there, wreathed in this aura of mist and cloud. She had a perpetual air of elegance and beauty; the sun was woven into her hair, the moonlight shone in her eyes, and the pearls of raindrops were her jewels. She stood, and she shone, and the starry diamonds that twinkled in her hair grew bright, and the spangles of comets in her robe came alive, and in that one moment, the orchestration of her beauty reached a climax. A shimmering window opened before her, a window edged with every colour possible, and a few that were not possible, and she bent her graceful head and tossed her golden tresses, and stared lovingly through the window with those limpid, melted eyes that radiated immortality. No mortal could look like this, and no mortal ever would.

She opened the window, and looked through the sky and skies above it into the world she had helped, the people who had survived the lost generation. She soared, became a bird, and swooped down to watch…through time, backwards, forwards…just those moments which mattered…

Her glittering dove's eyes first fell upon a small child, playing near a crystalline stream in the meadows. She flew down and nestled by the stream, and tears of happiness and affection shone in her small eyes. The child was tanned and bronzed, small and delicate; her green eyes were warm, and had depth, not the glass marble eyes of evil, but she had the confidence and bravery, the bravery that emanated from her every move; the bravery of a cowboy. 

The small girl stood, suddenly, and ran towards a flower growing, solitary by the side of the stream. She knelt beside it and plucked it, folding outwards the silky petals, smelling the delicate, pollen centre. In the misty distance, her parents watched, and smiled, and loved eachother, and the air was warm and heavy with their love, for the child and for eachother.

The dove flew away again, over the plains, over the shimmering sea, backwards and forwards through time…through the windows and a young couple lay in eachother's arms, together in the dark night. Her black hair mingled on the pillow with his, and for a second they were one person, limbs entwined, forever joined. A ring glimmered on her hand, barely visible between the folds of the sheets. The facets, the many facets gleamed, and the tiny piece of gold leaf inside was his life, and hers, joined for an eternity in the heart of the stone.

The dove smiled, through her golden goddess' beak, and had a sudden, revelationary glimpse of a young man, with stiff, spiked blonde hair, his fists failing powerfully, a determined expression on his face. He was pursuing his dream. He would make it; once he had learned everything. He could; and he would. She would make it so. These seven belonged together; belonged together in this world which needed them all. 

Another vision crossed through her mind, and her feathers ruffled slightly. The grave, which was never filled. The coffin, emptied of all trace. And the white dove flew away again, towards her final destination. 

The sapphire eyes; the dark, determined ones. His strong hand reached up to stroke her hair, which fell in curtains by the sides of her face. One long strand partially covered a thin, shiny burn down the side of her cheek. 

She smiled, and extended a white-gloved hand. She was glowing with a sense of her own prettiness, the white, pure dress. They'd kept it simple; something homely, something – special to both of them. They'd all been invited, of course…she couldn't believe she was still alive. She had been dead, but the spell had been broken, and she was free, to rejoin – her knight. He smiled into her eyes and said those fateful words. They leaned together, his hand cool on the back of her neck.

Their lips touched. They were joined forever. Nothing, and nobody could separate them again.

History was complete.

Hyne smiled down from heaven and blossomed from the dove to her regal goddess standing. The lives of Seifer Almasy, Quistis Trepe, Squall Leonheart, Rinoa Heartilly, Selphie Tilmitt, Irvine Kinneas, and of course…Zell Dincht…they were all complete. Wonderfully complete. She loved them all, and they loved eachother. Love – the only thing which meant anything. It could revive, it could kill. It was important.

Light years away, the spirit and soul of the defeated Ultimecia floated away, far away, to another world, another universe, another generation. She would be there, she may reincarnate, she may not. It was another life, another Ultimecia. Her Griever was embodied within her, and they made their solitary, abandoned way towards life, determined…determined to fight. They had no bodies; they were helpless.

Yet they were alive.

What would happen?

Who knows?

THE END

Okay…review this, please, and tell me your thoughts! Would you like a sequel? Review and tell me…No reviews, no sequel…

I hope you enjoyed my story…

**cosmic**


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